Wavelength-tunable few-cycle optical pulses directly from an all-fiber Er-doped laser setup.

A simple design, which we believe to be the first of its kind, of an all-fiber-based optical source is proposed for the generation of widely tunable few-cycle pulses as short as 20-25 fs duration in the range of 1.6-2.1 microm. Few-cycle pulses are obtained by compression of femtosecond pulses from the erbium-doped fiber laser in a three-stage scheme that uses (i) the effects of the soliton compression and the Raman frequency tuning in the dispersion decreasing fiber, as well as (ii) supercontinuum generation in a high-nonlinear silica fiber, and (iii) subsequent compression in a short conventional fiber.