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Abstract

The invention relates to modelocked lasers including highly dispersive optical elements. The dispersive optical elements increase the oscillation pulse width inside the laser oscillators, which reduces the nonlinearity of the laser cavity for a given oscillating pulse energy. Compared to conventionally designed modelocked lasers, an increase in output pulse energy by one to three orders is achieved. As way of example, the technique is applied to an erbium fiber laser, where a chirped fiber Bragg grating is employed as the dispersive element. By using a Kerr-modelocking technique, a high nonlinearity may be sustained inside the fiber laser cavity, which leads to the generation of pulses with psec widths and energies up to 2 nJ. The large bandwidth of the chirped fiber Bragg grating allows a wavelength tuning range in excess of 10 nm, which is achieved by polarization control and a control of the gain spectrum of the laser.

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First Claim