Abstract
Prechirped amplification, soliton compression, and self-pulse-steepening of a 300-fs stretch-pulse mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) pulse in an ultrashort length large-mode-area erbium-doped fiber amplifier (LMA-EDFA) and large-effect-area fiber (LEAF) link are investigated. In situ amplified compression of the single-mode-fiber prechirped EDFL pulse (broadened to 1.2 ps) is initiated in the LMA-EDFA at a pumping power of > 160 mW, which provides a 20-fold pulsewidthcompressing ratio for the incoming EDFL pulse and supports a maximum output power of > 20 dBm. With an extremely short LEAF-based fifth-order soliton stage, the amplified EDFL pulse can further be compressed down to a pulsewidth of 29 fs, which gives rise to a total pulsewidth-compressing ratio of as high as 40. The LMA-EDFA-based prechirped and amplified soliton compression leaves a small pedestal on the EDFL pulse with an energy confinement ratio of 74%, providing a 20-dB magnified pulse energy of 2.3 nJ and a 10-dB spectral linewidth of 150 nm. The self-steepening-induced blue-side spectral stretch by 1.3 THz is elucidated. © 2007 IEEE.