Nd3+-doped soft glass double-clad fibers with a hexagonal inner cladding

Abstract

The stack-and-draw technique was used to fabricate Nd3+-doped silicate and phosphate glass double-clad step-index fibers with a non-circular inner cladding. For the silicate fiber, a maximum output power of 7.7 W was obtained from a 94 cm fiber. An output power of 1.25 W was also realized with a short length fiber of 8 cm, confirming the application potential of this fiber in single frequency lasers and pulsed amplifiers where an efficient rare-earth-doped fiber with short length is desirable. For the phosphate fiber, a maximum output power of 2.78 W was obtained from a single-mode fiber with a core diameter of up to 35 μm.