The impact of thermal lensing (TL) on the transverse mode instability (TMI) threshold power in rod-type fiber amplifiers is investigated. Simulations are conducted with a 3D coupled mode analysis on a set of five scaled large pitch fiber (LPF) amplifiers. The LPF fibers are represented by surrogate step-index fibers (SIFs) with scaled cladding diameters, core diameters, and numerical apertures for a fixed normalized frequency V equal to 3.0 and scaled modal field overlap integrals with the core and cladding. It is found that thermal lensing decreases the TMI threshold powers due to increases in the TMI nonlinear gain. This gain increase is attributed to an increase in the nonlinear gain overlap integrals that occurs with the reduction in the fundamental mode effective area. Estimates for the TMI threshold power are in good agreement with measurements; however, the simulations overestimate the mode shrinkage factor. This discrepancy is tentatively attributed to the representation of the LPF by an effective SIF. These results may offer opportunities for fiber designs that increase the TMI threshold powers.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/AO.517483 | DOI Listing |
Transverse mode instability (TMI) significantly limits the power scaling of ytterbium-doped fiber lasers. In this Letter, what we believe to be a novel TMI mitigation strategy is proposed and demonstrated in a bidirectional output fiber laser. On the basis of the continuous wave (CW) pump, integrating a quasi-continuous wave (QCW) pump can effectively improve the TMI threshold of the system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStimulated 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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe photodarkening (PD) and transverse mode instability (TMI) effects are two main factors limiting the power increase and long-term stability of high-power fiber lasers. A prolonged burn-in test for an all-fiber laser oscillator below the TMI threshold was carried out. We observed the PD-induced TMI effects, which manifested as a sudden decrease in the output power due to higher-order mode leakage.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicromachines (Basel)
October 2024
College of Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, China.
We demonstrate new, large-mode area (LMA) gain fibers with ∼25 µm mode-field diameter, and increased higher-order mode loss that enable diffraction limited, pulsed fiber lasers operating at high average power with high pulse energy. We achieved 1.6 mJ, ns pulses, with 1.
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