Microstructured cladding elements to enhance performance and flexibility of large mode area leakage channel fibers

Abstract

Large mode area fibers are imperative for scaling up the average power of fiber lasers. Single-mode behavior and low FM loss are the crucial functionalities for these fibers. However, for key applications such as picosecond pulsed lasers, the device length needs to at least a few meters. This makes a certain degree of bend tolerance a prerequisite in the fiber design. While rod-type PCFs have been very successful in offering large mode areas, their rigid configuration limits their application domain. Alternatively, leakage channel fibers (LCFs) have shown a great potential for offering substantial bend tolerance along with large mode areas. However, the proposed use of Fluorine-doped rods in the all-solid version limits their practical design space. Here, we propose a novel design concept to attain single-material, large mode area fibers (mode area >~ 1000µm²) with effectively single mode operation coupled with bending characteristics comparable to all-solid LCFs and greater design flexibility and easier splicing that is comparable to rod-type PCFs.

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for D.J. Richardson: orcid.org/0000-0002-7751-1058

Catalogue record

Export record

Altmetrics