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Highly scalable, resonantly cladding-pumped, Er-doped fiber laser with record efficiency
M Dubinskii1, J Zhang, V Ter-Mikirtychev
1United States Army Research Laboratory, 2800 Powder Mill Road, Adelphi, Maryland 20783, USA. mdubinskiy@arl.army.mil
Optics Letters
|May 19, 2009
Summary
This study presents a novel Ytterbium-free, Erbium-doped fiber laser, achieving 48 W of continuous-wave output. It demonstrates record efficiency for cladding-pumped, unidirectionally emitting Erbium-doped lasers.
Area of Science:
- Photonics and Laser Technology
- Materials Science and Engineering
- Optical Engineering
Background:
- Erbium-doped fiber lasers are crucial for various applications, but achieving high power and efficiency, especially without Ytterbium sensitization, remains a challenge.
- Cladding-pumped architectures offer advantages for high-power fiber lasers, yet integrating them with fiber Bragg gratings and large-mode-area fibers requires careful design.
- Previous research has focused on Ytterbium-sensitized Erbium-doped fiber lasers or lower-power configurations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To report the performance of a novel resonantly cladding-pumped, Ytterbium-free, Erbium-doped fiber laser.
- To demonstrate the feasibility of a fiber-Bragg-grating-based, large-mode-area (LMA) fiber laser in this configuration.
- To establish new benchmarks for output power and optical-to-optical efficiency in Ytterbium-free Erbium-doped fiber lasers.
Main Methods:
- The laser utilized a resonantly cladding-pumped, Ytterbium-free, Erbium-doped fiber.
- Pumping was achieved using fiber-coupled InGaAsP/InP laser diode modules emitting at 1,532.5 nm.
- A fiber Bragg grating was integrated to form the resonant cavity, enabling unidirectional emission.
Main Results:
- The developed laser delivered approximately 48 W of continuous-wave (cw) output power at 1,590 nm.
- This represents the highest output power reported for a Ytterbium-free, Erbium-doped, large-mode-area (LMA) fiber laser.
- An optical-to-optical efficiency of approximately 57% was achieved, believed to be the highest for a cladding-pumped, unidirectionally emitting Erbium-doped laser.
Conclusions:
- The successful demonstration of a resonantly cladding-pumped, Ytterbium-free, Erbium-doped LMA fiber laser sets a new performance standard.
- This work highlights the potential of Ytterbium-free Erbium-doped fiber lasers for high-power and high-efficiency applications.
- The achieved results pave the way for further development of robust and efficient fiber laser sources in the Erbium gain band.
