Amplification of cylindrically polarized laser beams in single crystal fiber amplifiers

Yb:YAG single crystal fiber (SCF) amplifiers have recently drawn much attention in the field of amplification of ultra-short pulses. In this paper, we report on the use of SCF amplifiers for the amplification of cylindrically polarized laser beams, as such beams offer promising properties for numerous applications. While the amplification of cylindrically polarized beams is challenging with other amplifier designs due to thermally induced depolarization, we demonstrate the amplification of 32 W cylindrically polarized beams to an output power of 100 W. A measured degree of radial polarization after the SCF of about 95% indicates an excellent conservation of polarization.