Direct amplification of ultrashort pulses in μ-pulling-down Yb:YAG single crystal fibers

We demonstrated that Yb:YAG single crystal fibers have a strong potential for the amplification of femtosecond pulses. Seeded by 230 fs pulses with an average power of 400 mW at 30 MHz delivered by a passively mode-locked Yb:KYW oscillator, the system produced 330 fs pulses with an average power of 12W. This is the shortest pulse duration ever produced by an Yb:YAG amplifier. The gain in the single crystal fiber reached a value as high as 30 in a simple double-pass configuration. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America