Large-Mode-Area Erbium-Ytterbium-doped Photonic-Crystal Fiber Amplifier yielding 54-kW Femtosecond Pulses without Chirped-Pulse Amplification

A high-energy femtosecond fiber amplifier using a large-mode-area single-mode erbium-ytterbium-codoped photonic-crystal fiber is presented. 700-fs pulses at 1557nm were amplified and compressed to near-transform-limited 100-fs, 7.4-nJ pulses with > 50-kW peak powers without chirped-pulse amplification.