High-power Ytterbium-doped Fiber Amplifier Research Articles

Super broadband light source: a promising master oscillator source for high brightness and high-power fiber amplifiers

Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) and transverse mode instability (TMI) effects are crucial limitation factors for further power scaling of high-power fiber amplifiers with near-diffraction-limited beam quality. It is an important research direction to carry out laser system optimization from the perspective of seed construction. In this work, we experimentally investigated the impact of utilizing different seed lasers on the SRS and TMI characteristics in high power ytterbium-doped fiber amplifiers. Both the phase modulated single frequency fiber laser (PMSFL), fiber oscillator laser (FOL), and superfluorescent fiber source (SFS) as a typical type of temporally stable broadband light source (SBLS) are employed as seed lasers. The experimental results indicated that the SRS intensity in the fiber amplifier is influenced by the properties of the seed laser source. Notably, the SRS threshold of the SBLS could be comparable to that of a low-noise PMSFL source. There is a significant increase in TMI threshold when employing SBLS as a seed laser in high-power fiber amplifiers, which is 3.86 times that of the injected seed laser with a 3 dB narrow linewidth of 0.74 nm. Considering the combined threshold characteristics of SRS and TMI, it can be found that SBLS is a promising master oscillator source for high brightness and high-power fiber amplifiers. Our work could provide a good reference for the selection of a master oscillator source, and we believe that it is an important direction to go beyond the power limitation of high-power fiber lasers by constructing a light source with broader spectral linewidth and temporal stability.

Experimental study of transverse mode instability threshold dependence on seed wavelength in high power ytterbium-doped fiber amplifiers

As the output power increases, the transverse mode instability (TMI) has become a major limitation for power scaling of high power fiber lasers with nearly diffraction-limited beam quality. Many strategies in experimental or theoretical scopes have been proposed to mitigate the TMI. Theoretical studies have indicated that the TMI thresholds of the laser amplifiers are affected by the seed laser wavelength. In this work, the influences of seed wavelengths on the TMI threshold in high power large-mode-area ytterbium-doped fiber (YDF) amplifiers based on an all-fiber master oscillation power amplifier structure are investigated experimentally. The TMI characteristics and thresholds of the same fiber amplifier seeded by respective 1080 nm, 1070 nm, and 1065 nm fiber lasers are analyzed and compared. The experimental results show that the TMI threshold decrease with the seed wavelength in the region of 1065 nm–1080 nm. For every 5 nm decrease in seed wavelength, the TMI threshold power can be increased by about 290 W. Compared with the fiber amplifier of the 1080 nm seed wavelength, the TMI thresholds of the 1070 nm and 1065 nm wavelength fiber amplifiers are respectively increased by around 58.7% and 86.2%. Reducing the wavelength of seed can effectively improve the TMI threshold, but the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) and nonlinear effects are also enhanced. The results have significant guidance for the mitigation of TMI in high-power YDF laser systems.

Impact of gamma-ray radiation-induced photodarkening on mode instability degradation of an ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier

The laser performance of a high-power ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier is mainly hindered by the onset of mode instability. In this work, the slope efficiency and mode instability threshold of the ytterbium-doped fiber under various gamma-ray radiation doses have been measured. Experimental results reveal that gamma-ray radiation-induced photodarkening degrades mode instability severely, and gamma-ray radiation-induced mode instability degradation can be partly bleached by hours of pump-light injection. It is shown that gamma-ray radiation-induced photodarkening results in a steep reduction of slope efficiency and mode instability threshold; moreover, the entire irradiated fiber can be partly bleached by hours of pump-light injection and exhibits both time and gamma-ray radiation-dose saturation properties. The experimental results indicate that mode instability mitigation can be partly realized by pump-light injection and implies photodarkening suppression is beneficial for TMI mitigation, which is very promising for the advancement of high-power fiber lasers.

Thermo-optical effects in high-power Ytterbium-doped fiber amplifiers

We investigate the effect of temperature gradients in high-power Yb-doped fiber amplifiers by a numerical beam propagation model, which takes thermal effects into account in a self-consistent way. The thermally induced change in the refractive index of the fiber leads to a thermal lensing effect, which decreases the effective mode area. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the thermal lensing effect may lead to effective multi-mode behavior, even in single-mode designs, which could possibly lead to degradation of the output beam quality.

80 kHz repetition rate high power fiber amplifier flat-top pulse pumped OPCPA based on BIB_3O_6

We present a high peak power optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier (OPCPA) seeded by a cavity dumped Ti:Sapphire oscillator. A frequency doubled high power Ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier is pumping the device. Temporal synchronization of the pump pulses is done via soliton generation in a highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber. This soliton is fiber amplified and spectrally filtered in several fiber amplifiers. A simple birefringent pulse shaper generates a flat-top temporal pump pulse profile. Direct amplification of these pulses in large mode area fibers without using a stretcher and compressor provides significantly reduced complexity. For the first time to our knowledge broadband amplification around 800 nm central wavelength is demonstrated in BIB(3)O(6) (BIBO) crystals. The stretched Ti:Sapphire oscillator pulses are amplified up to a pulse energy of 25 microJ. Recompression with a grating compressor yields 50.7 fs pulses with 16.2 microJ pulse energy.

Optimisation of cascaded Yb fiber amplifier chains using numerical-modelling

We show that it is possible to adapt existing software packages developed originally for modeling telecommunication devices and systems to reliably predict and optimize the performance of high-power Ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier and laser systems. The ready availability of a flexible, user-friendly design tool should be of considerable practical interest to scientists and engineers working with this important new laser technology since Ytterbium amplifier and amplifier cascades are often difficult to optimize experimentally due to the three-level nature of the Ytterbium laser transition. As examples of the utility and accuracy of the software, as well as the complexity of the systems and amplifier properties that can be successfully modeled, we present a comparison of experimental and theoretical results for individual core and cladding pumped amplifiers, and also for an ultra-short pulse four-stage amplifier system optimized both to provide a broad gain bandwidth and to minimize nonlinear effects. We also show how high energy 100 ns pulses with complex user definable temporal profiles can be created in a gain-saturated amplifier by suitable pre-shaping of the low-energy input pulses. Furthermore, with appropriate modifications the same software package can be applied to fiber amplifiers based on other rare-earth elements and glass hosts.

Rayleigh backscattering and amplified spontaneous emission in high-power ytterbium-doped fiber amplifiers

An analysis of Rayleigh backscattering (RBS) and amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) in strongly pumped ytterbium fiber amplifiers is presented. The ytterbium (three-level) system is compared with four-level systems that were studied previously. Both approximate expressions and exact numerical solutions for ASE and RBS as well as for the amplifier noise figure are examined. The results suggest that ASE is apparently stronger in three-level systems, which implies a preferable pumping strategy.