Stretched ultrashort pulses for high repetition rate swept-wavelength Raman pumping

We demonstrate a novel, high repetition rate, swept-wavelength Raman pump source. The pump is based on stretched femtosecond pulses, initially generated in a passively modelocked, erbium-doped, fiber laser, and wavelength shifted in highly nonlinear, dispersion shifted fiber. The pump wavelength has a linear sweep in time, with a repetition rate of 69 MHz. The pump has a center wavelength of 1470 nm, a full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of 31 nm, and an average power of 350 mW. We characterize the pump by performing pump propagation experiments and electrical spectrum measurements of signal lasers amplified with the swept-wavelength pump.