Microjoule femtosecond fiber laser at 1.6 μm for corneal surgery applications

We report on chirped-pulse amplification in a large-mode-area erbium-doped fiber emitting in a water transparency window. 1.5 mu J 605 Is pulses are generated at 1.6 mu m with a repetition rate of 300 kHz; this corresponds to an average power of 460 mW. Nonlinearities are adjusted on the global system to compensate for the dispersion mismatch between the fiber stretcher and the grating compressor. This new compact and robust source targets medical applications such as surgery in highly scattering corneas. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America