Four-wave mixing in nanosecond pulsed fiber amplifiers

We present an experimental and theoretical analysis of four-wave mixing in nanosecond pulsed amplifiers based on double-clad ytterbium-doped fibers. This process leads to saturation of the amplified pulse energy at 1064 nm and to distortion of the spectral and temporal profiles. These behaviours are well described by a simple model considering both Raman and four-wave-mixing contributions. The role of seed laser polarization in birefringent fibers is also presented. These results point out the critical parameters and possible tradeoffs for optimization.