Photonic band gap fibre compressed chirped-pulse oscillator

Abstract

One of the most successful techniques for generating highenergy femtosecond laser pulses directly out of an oscillator without external amplification is based on intracavity pulse broadening due to a net positive round-trip group-delay dispersion. The main disadvantage of this concept, however, is the need to have an external compressor, often a pair of prisms separated by an optical path length of several metres. In this paper, we demonstrate for the first time an all-fibre compressor based on a photonic band gap fibre. Compared to a standard prism pair the total length of the set-up can be reduced by up to two orders of magnitude while its throughput is increased at the same time. © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.