High-power fiber amplifier using a depressed-clad Yb-doped LMA fiber with low photodarkening

Mathieu Drolet; Pierre Laperle; Claude Paré; Huimin Zheng; Louis Desbiens; Antoine Proulx; Yves Taillon

doi:10.1117/12.872898

22 September 2010 High-power fiber amplifier using a depressed-clad Yb-doped LMA fiber with low photodarkening

Mathieu Drolet, Pierre Laperle, Claude Paré, Huimin Zheng, Louis Desbiens, Antoine Proulx, Yves Taillon

Proceedings Volume 7750, Photonics North 2010; 775018 (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.872898
Event: Photonics North 2010, 2010, Niagara Falls, Canada

Abstract

A 225-μJ polarization maintaining ytterbium-doped large-mode-area multiclad fiber was designed and fabricated with an effective mode area of 450 μm² and a photodarkening maximum excess loss of ~1 dB/m at 1064 nm. The fiber index profile is based on a depressed-clad to obtain a diffraction-limited output. Optimization for low photodarkening and high conversion efficiency while maintaining a good control on the core's refractive index profile has been achieved by adjusting the ytterbium/phosphorus/aluminum concentrations in the fiber core. Concentration ratios of phosphorus/aluminum from 0.12 to 1.25 were experimentally investigated in terms of photodarkening rate and excess loss. Within this range, the photodarkening excess loss was observed to decrease by a factor of 8. The large-mode-area fiber was used in a 10-ns pulse amplifier at 1064 nm with a repetition rate of 100 kHz and 0.5-nm bandwidth. The diffraction-limited output has a measured M² value of 1.04 when the fiber is coiled to a diameter of 12 cm. The fiber amplifier slope efficiency is 70% with a polarization extinction ratio greater than 23 dB. It is shown how the phosphorus/aluminum ratio reduces photodarkening, and how a depressed-clad design improves higher-order mode filtering for reliable, efficient, and compact ytterbium-doped fiber amplifiers.

Citation Download Citation

Mathieu Drolet, Pierre Laperle, Claude Paré, Huimin Zheng, Louis Desbiens, Antoine Proulx, and Yves Taillon "High-power fiber amplifier using a depressed-clad Yb-doped LMA fiber with low photodarkening", Proc. SPIE 7750, Photonics North 2010, 775018 (22 September 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.872898

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