Picosecond to femtosecond pulses from high power self mode-locked ytterbium rod-type fiber laser

We have designed an ytterbium rod-type fiber laser oscillator with tunable pulse duration. This system that delivers more than 10 W of average power is self mode-locked. It yields femtosecond to picosecond laser pulses at a repetition rate of 74 MHz. The pulse duration is adjusted by changing the spectral width of a band pass filter that is inserted in the laser cavity. Using volume Bragg gratings of 0.9 nm and 0.07 nm spectrum bandwidth, this oscillator delivers nearly Fourier limited 2.8 ps and 18.5 ps pulses, respectively. With a 4 nm interference filter, one obtains picosecond pulses that have been externally dechirped down to 130 fs. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America