2 × 4.5 kW bidirectional output near-single-mode quasi-continuous wave monolithic fiber laser

Abstract

Quasi-continuous wave (QCW) laser has a very broad application in the industrial field, especially in additive manufacturing, surface treatment, laser cutting, laser cleaning, and laser drilling. Compared with the unidirectional fiber laser, the bidirectional output can be achieved two ports high power output with only one resonator, which can greatly reduce the industrial cost. However, there are few researches on QCW fiber lasers with bidirectional output. Here, we optimized and demonstrated a bidirectional output QCW laser with output power of 2 × 4.5 kW based on a double-clad ytterbium-doped fiber with a core/cladding diameter of 25/400 μm. The peak power at both ends reached 4515 W and 4694 W, respectively. The Raman suppression ratio at both ends of A and B is about 12 dB, and the beam quality factor M2 is about 1.37 and 1.42, respectively. The corresponding optical-to-optical efficiency is 79%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest peak power of QCW laser with near-single-mode beam quality in a bidirectional structure laser.