title: Fiber lasers and amplifiers: an ultrafast performance evolution.
abstract: The first rare-earth-doped fiber lasers were operated in the early sixties and produced a few milliwatts at a wavelength around 1 mum. For the next several decades, fiber lasers were little more than a low-power laboratory curiosity. Recently, however, fiber lasers are entering the realm of kilowatt powers in continuous as well as in pulse operation with diffraction-limited beam quality. In this article we review this power evolution.
authors.affiliation: Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Institute of Applied Physics, Max-Wien-Platz 1, D-07743 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tünnermann
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schreiber
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Limpert