Efficient single-frequency fiber lasers with novel photosensitive Er/Yb optical fibers

Abstract

Boron- and germanium-doped highly photosensitive cladding is used in a novel design to achieve photosensitive Er/Yb-doped fibers, permitting short, strong gratings (length approximately 1 cm, reflectivity >99%) to be written without hydrogenation. The high absorption at 980 nm in Er/Yb fibers permits efficient pump absorption over a short device length, which is ideal for achieving highly efficient single-frequency fiber lasers. Both single-frequency Bragg-grating reflector and distributed-feedback lasers with slope efficiencies of 25% with respect to launched pump power have been realized in such fibers.