We investigate femtosecond pulse generation from a CW Laser diode by optical gating with a Mach-Zehnder electro-optic modulator. 45 ps pulses are amplified to ten’s of watt peak power and propagated through a standard polarization maintaining fiber to reach enough spectral broadening by self-phase-modulation. Pulses are then compressed down to about 500 femtoseconds with a grating compressor. We analyze the measured spectral broadening with respect to pulse repetition rate and average power and do some comparison with numerical simulations. This approach paves the way to versatile ultrashort pulse Lasers that could be easily synchronized..

We report on a detailed study of an amplified spontaneous emission source operated in a pulsed regime with particular attention paid to the influence of high-intensity chaotic temporal events on the generation of nonlinear processes. To this aim, we have developed a monolithic high-power fiber system delivering partially coherent pulses of adjustable coherence. We also have demonstrated a non-linear method to characterize the stochastic properties of the source mitigating the bandwidth limitation of linear techniques. Measured parameters of the source for various configurations are presented. An enhanced classical model has been established to reproduce the statistical properties of the source and predict the behavior when exciting non-linear processes. Finally, a non-linear process (second harmonic generation) is investigated comparing the efficiency when the process is pumped by a pulsed beam with maximal and low coherence.