High-power tunable single-frequency single-mode erbium:ytterbium codoped large-core fiber master-oscillator power amplifier source

We present a cladding-pumped single-frequency, single-mode erbium:ytterbium codoped fiber master-oscillator power amplifier source generating up to 151 W of continuous-wave output power at 1563 nm with 33% slope efficiency and 20 dB gain. This source was also tunable and had a stable operation range of 1546 to 1566 nm at an output power level in excess of 125 W. The doped fiber exploited a large-core design for improved power handling and mitigation of stimulated Brillouin scattering. There was no sign of having stimulated Brillouin scattering even at the highest power. Despite a large core (V = 12), the output beam was nearly diffraction limited (M-2 = 1.1). The source showed slight rollover at over 100 W of output power because of the onset of emission from ytterbium, centered at 1060 nm. (c) 2005 Optical Society of America