Build up and decay of mode instability in a high power fiber amplifier.

State-of-the-art high power Yb-doped large mode area fibers have been developed to a performance level able to reach the so-called mode instability threshold. In this contribution we will discuss the experimental results regarding the temporal evolution (build up and decay) of this effect to come closer to a comprehensive understanding of its driving mechanisms. Our investigations prove that the relevant time scale for build up and decay of mode instability is in the millisecond range and thus deliver experimental evidence of underlying thermal effects.

High-power tandem pumped fiber amplifier with an output power of 2.9 kW.

We report on a high power fiber amplifier tandem pumped by an industrial style thin-disk laser. An output power of 1 kW and a very good slope efficiency of 73% have been obtained for a state-of-the-art photonic crystal fiber originally designed for short-pulse amplification. We also compare this result to an experiment, where a power of 2.