High‐energy femtosecond fiber lasers based on pulse propagation at normal dispersion

Abstract The generation and stable propagation of ultrashort optical pulses tend to be limited by accumulation of excessive nonlinear phase shifts. The limitations are particularly challenging in fiber‐based devices, and as a result, short‐pulse fiber lasers have lagged behind bulk solid‐state lasers in performance. This article will review several new modes of pulse formation and propagation in fiber lasers. These modes exist with large normal cavity dispersion, and so are qualitatively distinct from the soliton‐like processes that have been exploited effectively in modern femtosecond lasers but which are also quite limiting. Self‐similar evolution can stabilize high‐energy pulses in fiber lasers, and this…

• NS
  National Science Foundation