Subpicosecond pulse compression and Raman generation using a mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser-amplifier

Pulses of 20 ps duration from a 1536-nm erbium-doped fiber laser mode-locked at 10 MHz were soliton-compressed in a 1-km fiber to 1.5 ps. The pulses were then amplified in an erbium-doped fiber amplifier and compressed in a second fiber to less than 300 fs. Pulses give rise to stimulated Raman scattering in fibers; the direct output from the erbium fiber laser-amplifier has sufficient peak power to pump fiber Raman lasers. The sources can be made very compact and, with laser diode pumping, an all-fiber design can be realized. Such sources will find use in high-speed optical and electrooptical sampling instrumentation. Peak powers are high enough to study the nonlinear fiber effects that usually require a high-power Nd:YAG or color center laser.<>