Random Raman lasers attract now a great deal of attention as they operate in non-active turbid or transparent scattering media. In the last case, single mode fibers with feedback via Rayleigh backscattering generate a high-quality unidirectional laser beam. However, such fiber lasers have rather poor spectral and polarization properties, worsening with increasing power and Stokes order. Here we demonstrate a linearly-polarized cascaded random Raman lasing in a polarization-maintaining fiber. The quantum efficiency of converting the pump (1.05 μm) into the output radiation is almost independent of the Stokes order, amounting to 79%, 83%, and 77% for the 1st (1.11 μm), 2nd (1.17 μm) and 3rd (1.23 μm) order, respectively, at the polarization extinction ratio >22 dB for all orders. The laser bandwidth grows with increasing order, but it is almost independent of power in the 1–10 W range, amounting to ~1, ~2 and ~3 nm for orders 1–3, respectively. So, the random Raman laser exhibits no degradation of output characteristics with increasing Stokes order. A theory adequately describing the unique laser features has been developed. Thus, a full picture of the cascaded random Raman lasing in fibers is shown.

An analytical model for self phase modulation in Yb-doped fiber laser (YDFL) describing output spectrum and its broadening with increasing power has been developed. Spectral measurements in continuous wave (CW) cladding-pumped YDFL have proved the validity of the model demonstrating hyperbolic secant shape of the spectrum and linear increase of the line width with power in 1-12 W range. At lower powers, spatial hole burning and line self-sweeping effects become important and define the lower limit for the line width.

Linearly polarized pumping of a random fiber laser made of a 500-m PM fiber with PM fiber-loop mirror at one fiber end results in generation of linearly polarized radiation at 1.11 μm with the polarization extinction ratio as high as 25 dB at the output power of up to 9.4 W. The absolute optical efficiency of pump-to-Stokes wave conversion reaches 87%, which is close to the quantum limit and sets a record for Raman fiber lasers with random distributed feedback and with a linear cavity as well. Herewith, the output linewidth at high powers tends to saturation at a level of 1.8 nm.

A CW Raman fiber laser (RFL) operating below 1 μm with direct pumping by a high-power multimode laser diode at 938 nm has been demonstrated for the first time. The laser cavity is formed by a normally cleaved fiber end and a highly reflective fiber Bragg grating (FBG) inscribed at the opposite end of a 4.5 km long multimode graded-index fiber. Low-index transverse modes are generated at the first Stokes wavelength of ∼980 nm with an output power of ∼3 W, while the second Stokes wave at 1025 nm also starts to be generated, thus limiting the 980 nm output.