Few-optical-cycle pulse generation based on a non-linear fiber compressor pumped by a low-energy Yb:CALGO ultrafast laser

Pulse compression in a short, normal dispersion photonic-crystal fiber is investigated with a Yb:CaGdAlO4 laser pumped by a low-power fiber-coupled single-mode diode that delivers 70-fs pulses at 1050 nm central wavelength, with 45-mW average power at 60 MHz repetition rate. A simple and power-efficient compressor based on a similar to 15-cm long, low-cost commercial nonlinear fiber, with normal dispersion at the laser wavelength, produces pulses as short as 14.9 fs, corresponding to similar to 4.25 optical cycles, with 29 mW average power after a prism-pair compressor in double pass configuration. Pulse quality was investigated with frequency resolved optical gating (FROG) analysis. Furthermore, a comparative analysis of noise properties of the oscillator, pump laser and compressed pulses has been performed. (C) 2020 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement