High peak-power stretcher-free femtosecond fiber amplifier using passive spatio-temporal coherent combining.

We report on the passive coherent combining of up to 8 temporally and spatially separated ultrashort pulses amplified in a stretcher-free ytterbium-doped fiber system. An initial femtosecond pulse is split into 4 temporal replicas using divided-pulse amplification, and subsequently divided in two counter-propagating beams in a Sagnac interferometer containing a fiber amplifier. The spatio-temporal distribution of the peak-power inside the amplifier allows the generation of record 3.1 µJ and 50 fs pulses at 1 MHz of repetition rate with 52 MW of peak-power from a stretcher-free fiber amplifier and without additional nonlinear post-compression stages.

[1]  Tino Eidam,et al.  Femtosecond fiber CPA system emitting 830 W average output power. , 2010, Optics letters.

[2]  M Hanna,et al.  Stretcher-free high energy nonlinear amplification of femtosecond pulses in rod-type fibers. , 2008, Optics letters.

[3]  F. Wise,et al.  Generation of megawatt peak power picosecond pulses from a divided-pulse fiber amplifier. , 2012, Optics letters.

[4]  Yoann Zaouter,et al.  Passive coherent beam combining of two femtosecond fiber chirped-pulse amplifiers. , 2011, Optics letters.

[5]  M Hanna,et al.  Passive coherent combination of two ultrafast rod type fiber chirped pulse amplifiers. , 2012, Optics letters.

[6]  Shian Zhou,et al.  Divided-pulse Amplification of Ultrashort Pulses , 2006, 2007 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO).

[7]  Cesar Jauregui,et al.  High average power large-pitch fiber amplifier with robust single-mode operation. , 2011, Optics letters.

[8]  B C Thomsen,et al.  Self-similar propagation and amplification of parabolic pulses in optical fibers. , 2000, Physical review letters.

[9]  Jens Limpert,et al.  Coherent addition of fiber-amplified ultrashort laser pulses. , 2010, Optics express.

[10]  J. Rothhardt,et al.  Millijoule pulse energy high repetition rate femtosecond fiber chirped-pulse amplification system. , 2007, Optics letters.

[11]  P Bourdon,et al.  Passive coherent beam combining of two femtosecond fiber chirped-pulse amplifiers , 2011, Other Conferences.

[12]  Jens Limpert,et al.  Coherently-combined two channel femtosecond fiber CPA system producing 3 mJ pulse energy. , 2011, Optics express.

[13]  M Hanna,et al.  Generation of 63 fs 4.1 MW peak power pulses from a parabolic fiber amplifier operated beyond the gain bandwidth limit. , 2007, Optics letters.