High power ultrafast fiber lasers and amplifiers: Design, performance and potential

The recent demonstration of rare-earth-doped fiber lasers with a continuous-wave output power approaching the 10 kW-level with diffraction-limited beam quality has proven that fiber lasers constitute a power-scalable solid-state laser concept. To generate intense pulses from a fiber several fundamental limitations have to be overcome. Nevertheless, novel experimental strategies and fiber designs offer an enormous potential towards ultrafast laser systems with high average powers (>;kW) and high peak power (>;GW). The challenges, achievements and perspectives of ultrashort pulse generation and amplification in fibers will be reviewed.