High-power sub-picosecond all-fiber laser source at 1.56 lm

We demonstrate an all-fiber, high-power, and high stability ultrafast laser source operating at 1563 nm. A highly stable, self-starting carbon nanotube (CNT) mode-locked femtosecond fiber laser is used as the seed source. The amplifier stage uses a fiber chirped pulse amplification configuration. The main power amplifier is based on a cladding-pumped Er-Yb co-doped fiber with 10 µm active single-mode core diameter. The laser source provides 3.4 W average output power at 75 MHz repetition rate. The pulses are compressed to 765 fs by a low-loss transmission grating pair. The robust, compact, and high-power 1560 nm fiber laser source can be used for eye surgery and solar cell micromachining.