High-energy femtosecond amplifier-similariton Er-doped fiber oscillator

We demonstrated high-energy femtosecond amplifier-similariton oscillators with predominant Er-doped fibers of normal dispersion. Stably mode-locked pulses of ~3 ps, 33 nJ were produced at 720 mW pump power, while a double-pass grating pair of 36% efficiency compressed the pulses to 156 fs and 47 kW peak power (a new record). Broad mode-locked spectra supporting transform-limited pulsewidths down to 60 fs were obtained by adjusting the intracavity waveplates and filter. Continuous wave (CW) mode-locked pulses up to 53 nJ were generated by increasing the pump power to 1.5 W and by introducing significant spectral phase modulation via an intracavity pulse shaper. However, weak subpulses or pedestal could arise along with increased shot-to-shot fluctuation under this extreme operation mode.