Large Mode Area Solid-Core Photonic Bandgap Yb-Doped Fiber With Hetero-Structured Cladding for Compact High-Power Laser Systems

• Published in: Journal of lightwave technology 2021-07, Vol.39 (14), p.4809-4813
• Main Authors: Vanvincq, Olivier, Cassez, Andy, Habert, Remi, El Hamzaoui, Hicham, Baudelle, Karen, Plus, Stephane, Labat, Damien, Bouazaoui, Mohamed, Quiquempois, Yves, Bouwmans, Geraud, Audo, Frederic, Chartier, Thierry, Lallier, Eric, Bigot, Laurent
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Area; Bending; Chemical Sciences; Diameters; Doped fibers; Engineering Sciences; Fiber laser and amplifier; Frequency modulation; High power lasers; Indexes; Large-Mode Area (LMA); Laser beam cladding; Laser modes; Material chemistry; Materials; Optical fiber polarization; Photonic band gap; Photonic band gaps; Photonic Bandgap Fiber (PBGF); Photonic Crystal Fiber (PCF); Photonics; Polarization; Silicon compounds; Sol-gel processes; Ytterbium-doped fiber
• ISSN: 0733-8724; 1558-2213
• DOI: 10.1109/JLT.2021.3073590

We report on the design, realization and testing in pulsed amplification regime of a double-cladding, large mode area, polarization maintaining, solid core photonic bandgap fiber with Yb-doped core obtained from a Sol-Gel -made material. A specific hetero-structuration of the cladding has been applied to efficiently reject the higher-order modes, making the fiber single-mode in practice. When used as the last stage of a high power fiber amplifier, more than 90 W average power has been extracted at 1.03 \mum wavelength with a slope efficiency of 75 % with respect to the absorbed pump power. These performances were obtained for a 6 m-long piece of fiber bent on a radius smaller than 12.5 cm. A mode field diameter of 35 \mum is reported for the amplified beam with very good spatial quality and polarization extinction ratio.