Patent ID: 8509270

Claim:
A pulse source for generating pulses in the picosecond to nanosecond range, comprising: a seed source emitting seed pulses with a spectral width; a fiber amplifier chain comprising at least one fiber amplifier and receiving said seed pulses, wherein said fiber amplifier chain is configured for spectrally compressing pulses propagating in said fiber amplifier chain to a spectral width smaller than an injected spectral width of said seed pulses, wherein a spectral width of pulses emerging from said fiber amplifier chain is spectrally narrowed as compared to said spectral width of said seed pulses; a monitor for one or more parameters of said pulse source, said monitor being operatively coupled to at least said seed source and responsive to one or more parameters of said seed source; one or more pump laser diodes for pumping said seed source and said fiber amplifier chain; and a bulk optical amplifier receiving amplified pulses from said fiber amplifier chain and producing output pulses having pulse widths in the picosecond to nanosecond range, wherein said spectrally narrowed pulses are matched to a gain bandwidth of said bulk optical amplifier.