We report the performance of an LMA Yb-doped fiber, designed for increasing the transverse mode instability threshold and minimizing nonlinear effects in multi-kilowatt class fiber lasers, by reducing the thermo-optic coefficient of the fiber core, compared with that of standard aluminophosphosilicate Yb-doped fibers. A TMI-free 5.2 kW single-mode output power from a Yb 20/400 fiber with a 17.5 μm mode-field diameter was achieved in a broad bandwidth, co-pumped amplifier with 78% optical-to-optical efficiency, while a 4 kW signal output was attained in a 26 GHz linewidth amplifier. Negligible photodarkening loss was observed during 150 hour laser operation at 2 kW.
We report results from a new Yb-doped gain fiber with increased higher-order-mode (HOM) loss, compared to conventional step-index fibers. The fiber had 20 µm mode-field diameter (MFD), high absorption, and high transverse-mode instability (TMI) threshold. TMI-free operation with 5 kW output power was demonstrated from a 9 m length of gain fiber, limited by pump power. The large MFD and high absorption allowed for a 7.5 m long amplifier with greater than 80% o-o efficiency and the Raman peak more than 50 dB below the signal. These results were also enabled by a new, small-size, 7+1:1 pump-signal combiner.
We report the performance of new LMA Yb fibers with increased cladding absorption for pumping in the 915 nm absorption band. A 0.5 dB/m cladding-absorption Yb20/400 fiber showed negligible photodarkening loss in 400-hour laser operation at 3 kW, with 77% optical-to-optical efficiency. Low-SRS and TMI-free operation at 3.5 kW signal power was achieved with a 0.65 dB/m cladding-absorption and 20.2 μm mode-field diameter Yb fiber, tested in a co-pumped amplifier. The Raman peak was 31 dB below the signal peak at the maximum power.
We report a new Yb-doped gain fiber with 20 µm core and 400 µm cladding, designed for improving the long-term operation of commercial fiber lasers powered by cost-effective pump diodes, centered near 976 nm wavelength. The fiber was tested in a co-pumped amplifier, reaching 3.8 kW signal power with 89% optical-to-optical efficiency. Negligible photodarkening loss was observed in over 200-hour laser operation at 2 kW. The signal power was limited to 3.8 kW by TMI and can be further increased by optimizing the pumping configuration. The fiber is compatible with available 20/400 commercial fibers and components allowing fast system integration.
We report new Yb-doped gain fibers with approximately 20-μm core diameter and 400-μm cladding. These fibers have mode-field diameter greater than 19 μm, and increased higher-order-mode loss compared to conventional 19-μm modefield diameter fibers. The increased higher-order mode loss allows for high transverse-mode instability thresholds in fibers that also have large MFD and high absorption. A 21-μm fiber with 6.5 m operating length, was free from transverse-modal instabilities at 3.6 kW signal power and had 81% optical-optical efficiency. In narrow-linewidth amplifier experiments, the next-generation fiber with 21 μm fiber achieved 2.74 kW output power at 6 GHz linewidth, limited by pump power. This represents almost 2x increase in the ratio of power to signal linewidth compared to existing commercially available 19.5 μm MFD fibers, achieving 510 kW/GHz.
We demonstrate a high brightness, polarization maintaining 42+1 to 1 cascaded combiner system which consists of a tree architecture with one 6+1 to 1 pump-signal combiner pumped with six multimode pump combiners. The cascaded combiner system has a pump efficiency of 95%, high beam quality with greater than 20dB PER. In this work the higher brightness of the combiner system is driven by choice of optimized pump fibers and high efficiency of multimode pump combiners that operate at an average pump efficiency of 99%.
A robust, alignment-free monolithic 2.1 kW single-mode continuous wave fiber laser, operating at 1083 nm is demonstrated. The laser is pumped with commercial fiber pigtailed multimode diodes through all-fiber pump-signal power combiners in a MOPA architecture. The oscillator was formed with high reflector and output coupler fiber Bragg gratings written in 11/200 μm (mode field/cladding diameter) single-mode fiber. The gain medium was a 19m OFS commercial 11/200 μm double clad Yb-doped fiber (DCY). Pump light was coupled to the oscillator using two 11/200 μm pump-signal power combiners (PSC). A total of 20 commercially available 58W pump diodes at 915 nm were used to generate 800W of signal, as measured before the amplifier. The Raman power after the oscillator was more than 60 dB below the signal power. The amplifier was built using 13 m of 14/200 µm DCY and two (18+1)x1 PSC combiners with more than 95% pump and signal light transmission. A total of 2 kW of power was used to bi-directionally pump the amplifier. The output was measured after 3 m 14/200 μm fiber, and 10 m 100/360 μm delivery cable. Total signal output power was 2.1 kW, corresponding to an amplifier slope efficiency of 77%. The Raman power is more than 30 dB below the signal power. At maximum power, no modal instabilities, thermal effects, nor power rollover were observed. With higher power pumps, it is predicted that a power level of 2.6 kW can be achieved with the Raman level below 20 dB.
We demonstrate a highly-sensitive fiber optic sensor based on polarization mode beating (PMB) techniques
for measuring changes in the optical pathlength (i.e., length and refractive index) of a laser cavity. This
technique employs the two independent orthogonal modes from within the fiber laser to measure relative
phase changes. By heterodyning the modes it is possible to obtain a beating signal and perturb only one of the
modes so frequency changes can be measured. This results in the elimination of common intra-cavity noise
and sensitivity enhancement. Frequency changes of the PMB signal are evaluated as a function of
displacement, intra-cavity pressure and air density and monitored in real-time with high precision and
accuracy. The high sensitivity and narrow laser linewidth show a potential application for ultra-sensitive
biological measurements, chemical sensing and explosive detection.
We propose a novel technique for measuring small changes of two independent
polarization mode signals from within a single-frequency fiber laser cavity. Polarization mode
beating measurement techniques eliminate intracavity common noise yielding highly sensitive
detection.
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