462 kW excellent beam quality laser output with a low-loss Yb/Ce co-doped fiber fabricated by chelate gas phase deposition technique

Abstract

<p>\n\tA high-power Yb/Ce co-doped double-clad fiber with low optical loss was successfully fabricated by an optimized chelate gas phase deposition technique. It exhibits a nearly homogenous distribution of Al, Ce and Yb ions in the fiber core region, which reduce the clustering. The core attenuation at 1080 nm and 1383 nm are 12 dB/km and 46 dB/km, respectively, indicating high optical performance with a low optical loss. The amplifier stage with this fiber delivers 4.62 kW excellent beam quality (M-2 = 1.67) laser output with a slope efficiency of 80.3%. The experimental results show that the chelate gas phase deposition technique is a prospective method to fabricate a Yb/Ce co-doped fiber with low optical loss, which is beneficial for acquiring multi-kilowatt continuous-wave fiber laser with excellent beam quality. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America</p>