Picosecond pulse amplification up to a peak power of 42 W by a quantum-dot tapered optical amplifier and a mode-locked laser emitting at 1.26 mu m

We experimentally study the generation and amplification of stable picosecond-short optical pulses by a master oscillator power-amplifier configuration consisting of a monolithic quantum-dot-based gain-guided tapered laser and amplifier emitting at 1.26 mu m without pulse compression, external cavity, gain-or Q-switched operation. We report a peak power of 42 W and a figure-of-merit for second-order nonlinear imaging of 38.5 W-2 at a repetition rate of 16 GHz and an associated pulse width of 1.37 ps. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America