Spectral and temporal breathing self-similar evolution in a fiber amplifier for low-noise transform-limited pulse generation

We demonstrate a simple scheme for high-power low-noise high-contrast ultrashort pulse generation. It is enabled by the spectral and temporal breathing self-similar pulse evolution with an optimized negative pre-chirp. Experiments and simulations indicate the enhanced tolerances of this scheme to the gain-shaping distortions and pump fluctuations. It can lead to similar to 16% increase in the compressed pulse quality with more than a two times wider spectrum and similar to 31% reduction in the root-mean-square (rms) relative intensity noise (RIN). Transform-limited pulses as short as 36 fs are generated with the rms RIN of 0.029% (1 kHz-5 MHz) from a 2 m Yb-fiber amplifier. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America