Patent ID: 7684450

Claim:
A laser source for producing a pulsed laser beam comprising a plurality of ultrashort optical pulses having a variable repetition rate, said laser source comprising: a fiber oscillator that outputs optical pulses having an optical pulse width; a pulse stretcher disposed to receive said optical pulses, said pulse stretcher having dispersion that increases said optical pulse width yielding stretched optical pulses; a fiber amplifier disposed to receive said stretched optical pulses, said fiber optical amplifier having gain so as to amplify said stretched optical pulses; an automatically adjustable grating compressor comprising at least one translatable bulk optical element, said compressor having dispersion that reduces the optical pulse width, said dispersion of said grating compressor being adjustable, said grating compressor automatically adjusting said dispersion for different repetition rates, said automatically adjustable grating compressor comprising at least one grating and a reflective element separated by an optical path having an optical path length that is variable so as to adjust the dispersion of said grating compressor: and a translation stage that is movable so as to adjust said grating or said reflective element.