High-energy femtosecond fiber lasers

This article will review several new modes of pulse formation and propagation in fiber lasers. These modes exist with large normal cavity dispersion. Self-similar evolution can stabilize high-energy pulses in fiber lasers, and this leads to order-of-magnitude increases in performance: fiber lasers that generate 10-nJ pulses of 100-fs duration are now possible. Pulse-shaping based on spectral filtering of a phase-modulated pulse yields similar performance, from lasers that have no intracavity dispersion control. These new modes feature highly-chirped pulses in the laser cavity. Instruments based on these new pulse-shaping mechanisms offer performance that is comparable to that of solid-state lasers but with the major practical advantages of fiber.