Realization and characterization of a low intensity noise ultrafast Yb-doped fiber amplifier.

We report on the design and whole characterization of low-noise and affordable-cost Yb-doped double-clad fiber amplifiers operating at room temperature in the near-infrared spectral region at pulse repetition rate of 160 MHz. Two different experimental configurations are discussed. In the first one, a broadband seed radiation with a transform limited pulse duration of 71 fs, an optical spectrum of 20 nm wide at around 1040 nm, and 20 mW average power is adopted. In the second configuration, the seed radiation is constituted by stretched pulses with a time duration as long as 170 ps, with a 5-nm narrow pulse spectrum centered at 1029 nm and 2 mW average input power. In both cases we obtained transform limited pulse trains with an amplified output power exceeding 2 W. Furthermore, relative intensity noise measurements show that no significant noise degradation occurs during the amplification process.