A Unified Approach to Achieving High Power and High Energy in Chirally Coupled-Core Ytterbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier Systems

Abstract

An approach based on a comprehensive, unified model for fiber laser and amplifier systems is used in the design of high-power, high-energy systems. With guidance from the model, a chirally coupled-core Yb-doped fiber amplifier system is constructed. We use a two-stage system comprised of a 2.5-m long fiber preamplifier and a 3.0-m long fiber booster amplifier to illustrate the method. This compact system is capable of generating outputs of up to 1.2 mJ for 25-ns pulses at a repetition rate of 100 kHz, with average power of up to 121 W, and a slope efficiency of 82%.

Keywords

• Yb-doped fiber lasers
• fiber amplifiers
• chirally-coupled core fibers