Picosecond laser diode pulse amplification up to 12 W by laser diode pumped erbium-doped fiber

Abstract

Intense picosecond optical pulse generation from a gain-switched laser diode (LD) was demonstrated using a 1.48- mu m LD-pumped Er/sup 3+/-doped fiber laser amplifier. Saturation characteristics of the amplifier output power were also measured as a function of input repetition frequency. An amplified peak power of 12 W and 105-pJ pulse energy were obtained for 9-ps pulses at a 33-GHz repetition frequency. This is the highest peak power yet demonstrated in pulse generation employing all-laser diodes as active devices.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>