High-Power Large-Mode Area Optical Fibers for Fiber Lasers and Amplifiers

Much of the recent improvement in high power fiber laser performance has been obtained by increasing the mode field area of the core guiding region beyond that found in standard telecom fiber designs. This simple scaling concept has delivered highly efficient kWatt level fiber lasers and amplifiers operating at 1 μm, based on Yb-doping and more recently the extension to 2 μm using highly efficient Tm-doped fibers.