High-power air-clad large-mode-area photonic crystal fiber laser

We report on a 2.3 m long air-clad ytterbium-doped large-modearea photonic crystal fiber laser generating up to 80 W output power with a slope efficiency of 78%. Single transverse mode operation is achieved with a mode-field area of 350 microm2. No thermo-optical limitations are observed at the extracted ~35W/m, therefore such fibers allow scaling to even higher powers.