414  W near-diffraction-limited all-fiberized single-frequency polarization-maintained fiber amplifier

A high-power 1064 nm single-frequency polarization-maintained fiber amplifier based on an all-fiber master oscillator power amplifier configuration is demonstrated. To mitigate the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and the mode instability (MI) effect, a polarization-maintained Yb-doped fiber with a high dopant concentration and a 25 μm core diameter is adopted in the main amplifier stage; in addition, step-distributed longitudinal strain is imposed on the active fiber to broaden its effective SBS gain spectrum and further increase the SBS threshold. As a result, a pump-limited 414 W single-frequency fiber laser is obtained without signs of SBS and MI. Experimental results show that the SBS threshold is increased by at least two times. The slope efficiency of the main amplifier is about 80%. The polarization degree is higher than 98% at all the power levels. The beam quality is measured with a M² of 1.34. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest output power of single-frequency polarization-maintained fiber amplifier based on an all-fiber structure.