title: Triple-clad large-pitch fibers for compact high-power pulsed fiber laser systems.
abstract: We present a novel ytterbium (Yb)-doped large-pitch fiber design with significantly increased pump absorption and higher energy storage/gain per unit length, which enables high-peak-power fiber laser systems with smaller footprints. Up to now index matching between core and surrounding material in microstructured fibers was achieved by co-doping the active core region with fluorine. Here we carry out the index matching by passively doping the cladding with germanium, thus raising its index of refraction. Hence, the fluorine in the core can be omitted, which leads to an effective increase of the core doping concentration, while detrimental effects such as photo-darkening and lifetime quenching are avoided by maintaining the bulk Yb concentration. Experiments and simulations show that a gain higher than 50 dB/m and an output average power higher than 100 W with excellent beam quality are feasible even with a fiber length of only 40 cm.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gaida
authors.forename: Fabian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Stutzki
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jansen
authors.forename: Hans-Jürgen
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Otto
authors.forename: Tino
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Eidam
authors.forename: Cesar
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jauregui
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: de Vries
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Limpert
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tünnermann