Patent ID: 7593434

Claim:
A fiber-based Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA) laser system comprising: a. a fiber-based mode-locking oscillator configured to generate a first laser pulse having a first pulse width; b. a fiber-based stretcher configured to stretch the laser pulse to produce a second laser pulse having a second pulse width longer than the first pulse width; c. an amplifier configured to amplify the second laser pulse to produce an amplified laser pulse; and d. a dispersion-compensating compressor comprising: i. a first grating configured to diffract the amplified laser pulse from the amplifier; ii. a first prism configured to refract the amplified laser pulse from the first grating; iii a second prism configured to refract the amplified laser pulse from the first prism; iv. a second grating configured to diffract the amplified laser pulse from the second prism; and v. a mirror configured to reflect the amplified laser pulse from the second grating to produce a reflected amplified laser pulse, wherein the second grating is configured to diffract the reflected amplified laser pulse from the mirror to the second prism, wherein the second prism is configured to refract the reflected amplified laser pulse from the second grating, wherein the first prism is configured to refract the reflected amplified laser pulse from the second prism, and wherein the first grating is configured to diffract the reflected amplified laser pulse from the first prism to produce an output laser pulse having a third pulse width shorter than the second pulse width, wherein the dispersion-compensating compressor is configured to compensate a high order dispersion in the amplified laser pulse and to compress the amplified laser pulse.