Scalable waveguide design for three-level operation in Neodymium doped fiber laser.

We have constructed a double clad neodymium doped fiber laser operating on the three-level F-4(3/2)-> I-4(9/2) transition. The laser has produced 11.5 W at 925 nm with 55% slope efficiency when pumped at 808 nm, comparable to the best previous results for a double-clad fiber configuration on this transition. Higher power pumping with both 808 nm and 880 nm sources resulted in an output of 27 W, albeit at lower slope efficiency. In both cases, output power was limited by available pump, indicating the potential for further power scaling. To suppress the stronger four-level 4F(3/2)-> I-4(11/2) transition we developed a waveguide that provides spectral filtering distributed along the length of the fiber, based on an all-solid micro-structured optical fiber design, with resonant inclusions creating a leakage path to the cladding. The waveguide supports large mode areas and provides strong suppression at selectable wavelength bands, thus easing the restrictions on core and cladding sizes that limited power scaling of previous approaches. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America