We report the characteristics of a 1 W hollow-core fiber gas laser emitting CW in the mid-IR. Our system is based on an acetylene-filled hollow-core optical fiber guiding with low losses at both the pump and laser wavelengths and operating in the single-pass amplified spontaneous emission regime. Through systematic characterization of the pump absorption and output power dependence on gas pressure, fiber length, and pump intensity, we determine that the reduction of pump absorption at high pump flux and the degradation of gain performance at high gas pressure necessitate the use of increased gain fiber length for efficient lasing at higher powers. Low fiber attenuation is therefore key to efficient high-power laser operation. We demonstrate 1.1 W output power at a 3.1 μm wavelength by using a high-power erbium-doped fiber amplifier pump in a single-pass configuration, approximately 400 times higher CW output power than in the ring cavity previously reported.
Anti-resonant hollow-core fibers are optical fiber waveguides which exhibit very low dispersion, high damage threshold and ultra-low nonlinear response. However, they typically deliver the light in several spatial modes, whereas their application usually requires that they support a single spatial mode. We report the principles, fabrication, demonstration and characterization of anti-resonant hollow-core fibres with strong differential modal attenuations and low overall attenuations. These fibers perform as single-mode and are eminently suitable for delivery of powerful ultrashort optical pulses in machining, cutting, welding and multiphoton microscopy applications.
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