An all-fiber chirped pulse amplification (CPA) system and method is provided that utilizes a hollow core photonic bandgap fiber as a pulse compressor and a dispersion compensating optical fiber as a pulse stretcher that are matched with respect to both the amount and slope of dispersion to avoid peak power-limiting pulse distortion. The CPA system includes a rare earth ion-doped optical fiber amplifier having an input and an output that amplifies optical pulses having a center wavelength of .lamda.c, a pulse compressing length L1 of hollow core photonic bandgap fiber having a dispersion value D1 and a dispersion slope S1 that varies over a wavelength .lamda. of the pulses that is optically connected to the output of the fiber amplifier and having a k-parameter defined by a ratio of D1 over the slope of the function D1(.lamda.) that is larger than about 50, and a pulse stretching length L2 of dispersion compensating optical fiber connected to the input of the fiber amplifier having a dispersion value D2 and dispersion slope S2. The lengths are selected such that L1D1=-L2D2, and the center wavelength .lamda.c of the inputted optical pulses is preferably close to the center wavelength of the bandgap of the photonic bandgap fiber.