Patent ID: 8848751

Claim:
Optical apparatus, comprising: a laser having a first neodymium-doped vanadate gain-medium for delivering an optical pulse having a first pulse-duration and a first spectral bandwidth around an emission wavelength characteristic of the first neodymium-doped gain-medium; an optical fiber arranged to receive the optical pulse and broaden the spectral bandwidth of the pulse to a second spectral bandwidth; an optical amplifier for amplifying the bandwidth-broadened optical pulse to provide an amplified optical pulse, the optical amplifier having a second neodymium-doped vanadate gain-medium different from the first neodymium-doped vanadate gain-medium, the second neodymium-doped gain-medium having a gain-bandwidth about a peak-gain wavelength characteristic of the second neodymium-doped gain-medium and spaced apart in wavelength from the emission-wavelength of the first neodymium-doped vanadate gain-medium; and wherein the gain-bandwidth of the second neodymium-doped vanadate gain-medium partially overlaps in wavelength the broadened spectral bandwidth of the optical pulse in a manner such that a portion of the gain-bandwidth of the second neodymium-doped vanadate gain-medium lies outside the broadened spectral bandwidth of the pulse, whereby the amplified optical pulse has a second pulse-duration shorter than the first pulse-duration.