Dissipative Soliton Generation and Amplification in Erbium-Doped Fibers Operating at 1.55 μm

We report on our recent developments on ultrafast pulse generation in erbium-doped fiber laser systems operating in the 1550 nm wavelength range. This work concerns the generation of ultrafast pulses from dissipative soliton fiber lasers featuring resonant saturable absorber mirrors as well as their amplification in highly efficient erbium-doped large-mode-area fibers. Different amplification schemes featuring all-fiber components are studied leading to the achievement of record pulse energy from a high repetition rate laser system. The system delivers 8 W of average power at 35 MHz repetition rate corresponding to 230 nJ pulse energy. After external compression, near transform-limited, 850 fs-long pulses are obtained. The pulse peak power exceeds 180 kW.