title: Optimization of femtosecond Yb-doped fiber amplifiers for high-quality pulse compression.
abstract: We both theoretically and experimentally investigate the optimization of femtosecond Yb-doped fiber amplifiers (YDFAs) to achieve high-quality, high-power, compressed pulses. Ultrashort pulses amplified inside YDFAs are modeled by the generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation coupled to the steady-state propagation-rate equations. We use this model to study the dependence of compressed-pulse quality on the YDFA parameters, such as the gain fiber's doping concentration and length, and input pulse pre-chirp, duration, and power. The modeling results confirmed by experiments show that an optimum negative pre-chirp for the input pulse exists to achieve the best compression.
authors.affiliation: Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. hungwen@mit.edu
authors.forename: Hung-Wen
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: JinKang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Shu-Wei
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Damian N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Schimpf
authors.forename: Franz X
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Kärtner
authors.forename: Guoqing
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chang
mesh_terms: D000669:Amplifiers, Electronic; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D044962:Data Compression; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005336:Fiber Optic Technology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D007834:Lasers; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015018:Ytterbium / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D015018:Ytterbium