High-power frequency comb in the range of 2-2.15 mu m based on a holmium fiber amplifier seeded by wavelength-shifted Raman solitons from an erbium-fiber laser

We demonstrate a room-temperature high-power frequency comb source covering the spectral region from 2 to 2.15 mu m. The source is based on a femtosecond erbium-fiber laser operating at 1.55 mu m with a repetition rate of 250 MHz, wavelength-shifted up to 2.06 mu m by the solitonic Raman effect, seeding a large-mode-area holmium (Ho) fiber amplifier pumped by a thulium (Tm) fiber laser emitting at 1.94 mu m. The frequency comb has an integrated power of 2 W, with overall power fluctuations as low as 0.3%. The beatnote between the comb and a high-spectral-purity, single-frequency Tm-Ho laser has a linewidth of 32 kHz over 1 ms observation time, with a signal-to-noise ratio in excess of 30 dB. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America