5 kW near-Diffraction-limited and 8 kW High-Brightness Monolithic Continuous Wave Fiber lasers Directly Pumped by laser Diodes

Qiang Fang, Jinhui Li, Wei Shi, Yuguo Qin, Yang Xu, Xiangjie Meng, Robert A. Norwood, Nasser Peyghambarian

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

68 Scopus citations

Abstract

Tandem pumping technique are traditionally adopted to develop >3-kW continuous-wave (cw) Yb3+-doped fiber lasers, which are usually pumped by other fiber lasers at shorter wavelengths (1018 nm e.g.,). Fiber lasers directly pumped by laser diodes have higher wall-plug efficiency and are more compact. Here we report two high brightness monolithic cw fiber laser sources at 1080 nm. Both lasers consist of a cw fiber laser oscillator and one laser-diode pumped double cladding fiber amplifier in the master oscillator-power amplifier configuration. One laser, using 30- and Mu;m-core Yb3+-doped fiber as the gain medium, can produce >5-kW average laser power with near diffraction-limited beam quality (M2<1.8). The slope efficiency of the fiber amplifier with respect to the launched pump power reached 86.5%. The other laser utilized 50- and Mu;m-core Yb3+-doped fiber as the gain medium and produced >8-kW average laser power with high beam quality (M2: ∼ 4). The slope efficiency of the fiber amplifier with respect to the launched pump power reach 83%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first detailed report for >5-kW near-diffraction-limited and >8-kW high-brightness monolithic fiber lasers directly pumped by laser diodes.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number8025378
JournalIEEE Photonics Journal
Volume9
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2017

Keywords

  • Diode-pumped lasers
  • fiber lasers
  • high power
  • near-diffraction-limited
  • ytterbium-doped.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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