Compact femtosecond 10 μJ pulse energy fiber laser with a CFBG stretcher and CVBG compressor

In this work, a compact high energy fiber chirped pulse amplification system with matched pair of a chirped fiber Bragg grating stretcher and a chirped volume Bragg grating compressor is presented. Chirped pulses of 230 ps duration were amplified in a single mode Yb-doped fiber amplifiers to 10 µJ pulse energy and re-compressed to 349 fs duration corresponding to the peak power of 26 MW. Gain saturation was demonstrated when pumping with tandem of single mode laser diodes due to small mode area of the single mode fiber. Such laser source could be used in applications where high peak power is required but moderate average power is sufficient.