We describe the design and characterization of solid core large mode area bandgap fibers exhibiting low propagation loss and low bend loss. The fibers have been prepared by modified chemical vapor deposition process. The bandgap guidance obtained thanks to a 3-bilayer periodic cladding is assisted by a very slight index step (5.10-4) in the solid core. The propagation loss reaches a few dB/km and is found to be close to material loss.

An original architecture of an active fiber allowing a nearly diffraction-limited beam to be produced is demonstrated. The active medium is a double-clad large-mode-area photonic-bandgap fiber consisting of a 10,000 ppm by weight Yb(3+)-doped core surrounded by an alternation of high- and low-index layers constituting a cylindrical photonic crystal. The periodic cladding allows the robust propagation of a approximately 200 microm(2) fundamental mode and efficiently discriminates against the high-order modes. The M(2) parameter was measured to be 1.17. A high-power cw laser was built exhibiting 80% slope efficiency above threshold. The robust propagation allows the fiber to be tightly bent. Weak incidence on the slope efficiency was observed with wounding radii as small as 6 cm.

Heavily Er-doped fibers (EDFs) based on P(2)O(5)-Al(2)O(3)-SiO(2) (PAS) ternary glass have been studied. A unique feature of this glass is the formation of a AlPO(4) join having a structure similar to that of SiO(2) glass and a refractive index below it. It is found that the Er(3+) absorption and emission spectra in the PAS EDFs are defined by the dopant (Al(2)O(3) or P(2)O(5)) present in excess and are close to those of the corresponding binary glass (Al(2)O(3)-SiO(2) or P(2)O(5)-SiO(2)). The presence of the AlPO(4) join results in the enhancement of the pump-to-signal conversion efficiency in the PAS EDFs as compared with the EDFs based on the P(2)O(5)-SiO(2) and Al(2)O(3)-SiO(2) (with 1.5 mol. %Al(2)O(3) and less) binary glasses. The PAS host glass is advantageous in the case of large-mode-area active fibers.

We demonstrate a novel amplification regime in a counter-pumped, relatively long (2 meters), large mode area, highly Yb-doped and polarization-maintaining tapered fiber, which offers a high peak power directly from the amplifier. The main feature of this regime is that the amplifying signal propagates through a thin part of the tapered fiber without amplification and experiences an extremely high gain in the thick part of the tapered fiber, where most of the pump power is absorbed. In this regime, we have demonstrated 8 ps pulse amplification to a peak power of up to 0.76 MW, which is limited by appearance of stimulated Raman scattering. In the same regime, 28 ps chirped pulses are amplified to a peak power of 0.35 MW directly from the amplifier and then compressed with 70% efficiency to 315 ± 10 fs, corresponding to an estimated peak power of 22 MW.

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We report, for the first time to our knowledge, on a single-mode millijoule-level 100-nanosecond Er-doped fiber laser operating near 1550 nm. The system features a newly developed 35-μm-core Yb-free double-clad Er-doped fiber based on P(2)O(5)-Al(2)O(3)-SiO(2) glass matrix and produces pulses with energy as high as 1 mJ at repetition rates of 1-10 kHz.

The spectral window lying between 1.6 and 1.7 μm is interesting for in-depth multiphoton microscopy of intact tissues due to reduced scattering and absorption in this wavelength range. However, wide adoption of this excitation range will rely on the availability of robust and cost-effective high peak power pulsed lasers operating at these wavelengths. In this communication, we report on a monolithically integrated high repetition rate (50 MHz) all-fiber femtosecond laser based on a soliton self-frequency shift providing 9 nJ, 75 fs pulses at 1650 nm. We illustrate its potential for biological microscopy by recording three-photon-excited fluorescence and third-harmonic generation images of mouse nervous tissue and developing Drosophila embryos labeled with a red fluorescent protein.

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