Generation of high-energy picosecond pulses in an Yb-doped fiber oscillator with enhanced grating compressors

We report on the generation of high-energy picosecond pulses in an Yb-doped single-mode fiber oscillator with enhanced grating compressors. Inserting two lenses in a pair of gratings, the spectral chirp of the optical pulses could be enlarged up to 5.5 times, compared to the conventional Treacy grating compressors, demonstrating the enhanced grating compressor technique [Ivanov, Opt. Express 30 , 35338 ( 2022 ) 10.1364/OE.468814 ]. By using Treacy grating compressors and enhanced grating compressors, the anomalous dispersion in the cavity can be varied by 2300 times, from −0.67 ps 2 to −1565 ps 2 , and the fiber oscillator delivers optical pulses with duration from 1.0 ps to 302.0 ps and energy from 0.6 nJ to 102.7 nJ. The pulse energy of 102.7 nJ is the largest, to the best of our knowledge, from a classical soliton laser.