Abstract

We demonstrate high average power, high peak power amplification of 10 GHz, picosecond and femtosecond pulses in a very-large-mode-area (VLMA), Er-doped fiber with an effective area of $\sim 1100{\mathrm{\mu m}}^2$. A high-power, single-mode Raman fiber laser with up to 183 W of power at 1480 nm served as the pump source. When amplifying 3 ps pulses at 1560 nm, a maximum average power of 120 W was demonstrated. Using an additional highly nonlinear fiber for pulse compression before the VLMA amplifier, 130 fs pulses with an average power of 115 W, peak power of 88 kW, and $M^2$ of 1.18 were achieved. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time ultrashort pulses in the 1550 nm wavelength region have been amplified to average powers in excess of 100 W in an Er-fiber amplifier.

© 2016 Optical Society of America

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