Controlling the influence of SPM in fiber-based chirped-pulse amplification systems by using an actively shaped parabolic spectrum

We report on the experimental demonstration of the control of the influence of nonlinearity in fiber-based chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) using active spectral amplitude shaping. By applying a liquid crystal spatial light modulator, the influence of the spectral profile on the recompressed pulse quality is experimentally revealed. The parabolic spectrum is experimentally determined to be very suitable for CPA-systems in which nonlinearity is present. The corresponding nonlinear phase contribution can be efficiently compensated by a conventional grating compressor. In a proof-of-principle experiment using an Yb-doped fiber-CPA-system, control at a B-integral as high as 16 rad is demonstrated. The method allows significant performance improvement of fiber-based chirped-pulse amplification.