Patent ID: 6990270

Claim:
An apparatus for generating high-power femtosecond optical pulses, the apparatus comprising a femtosecond pulse source; a phase conditioning optical dispersive element coupled to the output of the femtosecond pulse source, the dispersive element having predetermined characteristics chosen to produce a pulse with a desired phase; a rare-earth doped fiber amplifier coupled to the output of the dispersive element, the rare-earth doped fiber amplifier comprising: a second of rare-earth doped single mode fiber of a predetermined length, at least one source of optical pump power, and at least one wavelength division multiplexer for introducing the output of the at least one source of optical pump power and the output of the dispersive element into the section of rare-earth doped fiber; and an output section of single mode fiber fused to the output of the rare-earth doped fiber amplifier, the output section of single mode fiber used to compress the output optical pulses from the rare-earth doped fiber amplifier.