High-power photonic-bandgap fiber laser.
An original architecture of an active fiber allowing a nearly diffraction-limited beam to be produced is demonstrated. The active medium is a double-clad large-mode-area photonic-bandgap fiber consisting of a 10,000 ppm by weight Yb(3+)-doped core surrounded by an alternation of high- and low-index layers constituting a cylindrical photonic crystal. The periodic cladding allows the robust propagation of a approximately 200 microm(2) fundamental mode and efficiently discriminates against the high-order modes. The M(2) parameter was measured to be 1.17. A high-power cw laser was built exhibiting 80% slope efficiency above threshold. The robust propagation allows the fiber to be tightly bent. Weak incidence on the slope efficiency was observed with wounding radii as small as 6 cm.
Février
Sébastien
S
Xlim, UMR 6172 CNRS, University of Limoges 123 Avenue A. Thomas, 87060 Limoges, France. sebastien.fevrier@xlim.fr
Gaponov
Dmitry D
DD
Roy
Philippe
P
Likhachev
Mikhail E
ME
Semjonov
Sergei L
SL
Bubnov
Mikhail M
MM
Dianov
Evgeny M
EM
Yashkov
Mikhail Yu
MY
Khopin
Vladimir F
VF
Salganskii
Mikhail Yu
MY
Guryanov
Aleksei N
AN