Nonlinear polarization rotation-induced pulse shaping in a stretched-pulse ytterbium-doped fiber laser

We report on controllable pulse shaping in a Yb-doped stretched-pulse fiber laser followed by a high-power chirped pulse amplifier. We demonstrate that the pulses after an extra-cavity grating pair change their intensity profile from Lorentz to Gaussian and then to sech² shapes by adjusting the intra-cavity polarization through a quarter-wave plate inside the fiber laser cavity. The laser pulses with different pulse shapes exhibit pulse-to-pulse amplitude fluctuation of ∼ 1.02%, while the sech²-shaped pulse train is provided with a more stable free-running repetition rate as a result of the stronger self-phase modulation in the fiber laser cavity than Lorentz- and Gaussian-shaped pulse trains.