Flexible operability and amplification of gray pulses.

We have investigated experimentally the flexible production and amplification of gray pulses for the first time to our knowledge. Switchable wavelengths, tunable pulse-widths, and adjustable contrasts have all been obtained in a fiber laser. Amplification of gray pulses was also experimentally investigated in detail. The contrast of the pulses could also be increased in an amplifier. The robust stability that results from the interactions between adjacent harmonic mode locking counterparts of gray pulses was found to last for up to ten hours. To the best of our knowledge, the gray pulses trains we have generated are the most stable achieved to date in an all-fiber laser system. This finding can be used as a guide for the establishment of robust gray pulses as laser sources.