Abstract Ultrafast femtosecond mode-locked fiber laser plays an indispensable role in medical imaging, space ranging, ophthalmology, terahertz spectroscopy, material micromachining, and so on. It’s not only an important tool for people to explore the world, but also a pillar field of laser technology. This review present the generation of femtosecond pulses in ultrafast mode-locked fiber lasers using active, passive, hybrid mode-locking techniques, the emphasis is given to passively mode-locked fiber lasers. In terms of the optimization of femtosecond pulses, we introduce the external compression technique to obtain shorter pulse width, chirped pulse amplification technique to increase pulse energy and obtain high energy femtosecond pulses at the practical band. Furthermore, the coherent beam combination and divided pulse amplification technique to further boost pulse energy are summarized. At the end of this review, we present a detailed overview of the applications of femtosecond pulses including the generation of supercontinuum and tunable femtosecond pulses, and some practical applications. Several perspectives and research directions of femtosecond pulses are also addressed.

中文翻译：

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超短飞秒脉冲在锁模光纤激光器中的产生、优化及应用

摘要 超快飞秒锁模光纤激光器在医学成像、空间测距、眼科、太赫兹光谱、材料微加工等领域发挥着不可或缺的作用。它不仅是人们探索世界的重要工具，也是激光技术的支柱领域。本综述介绍了使用主动、被动、混合锁模技术在超快锁模光纤激光器中产生飞秒脉冲，重点是被动锁模光纤激光器。在飞秒脉冲优化方面，我们引入了外部压缩技术以获得更短的脉宽，啁啾脉冲放大技术以增加脉冲能量，在实用波段获得高能量的飞秒脉冲。此外，总结了相干光束组合和分脉冲放大技术，以进一步提高脉冲能量。在这篇综述的最后，我们详细介绍了飞秒脉冲的应用，包括超连续谱和可调谐飞秒脉冲的产生，以及一些实际应用。还讨论了飞秒脉冲的几个观点和研究方向。