Fabrication of 2 kW-Level Chirped and Tilted Fiber Bragg Gratings and Mitigating Stimulated Raman Scattering in Long-Distance Delivery of High-Power Fiber Laser

Abstract

Chirped and tilted fiber Bragg gratings (CTFBGs) have attracted a lot of attention in stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) suppression of high-power fiber lasers. However, the laser power handling capacity seriously limits their applications. In this paper, by optimizing the inscription parameters and post-processing strategy, we fabricate a large-mode-area double-cladding CTFBG with a thermal slope of ~0.015 °C/W due to the low insertion loss of about 0.15 dB, which make it possible for direct kilowatt-level application. A 2 kW-level fiber laser oscillator is employed to test the CTFBG, and a series of experiments have been carried out to compare the effect of SRS mitigation in high-power fiber laser long-distance delivery. In addition, the influence of CTFBGs on laser beam quality is studied for the first time. Experimental results indicated that the CTFBG could effectively mitigate SRS and has no obvious influence on laser beam quality. This work opens a new opportunity for further power scaling and the delivery of high-power fiber lasers over longer distances.

Keywords

• high-power fiber lasers
• chirped and tilted fiber Bragg gratings
• stimulated Raman scattering
• laser beam quality