Loss mechanism of all-fiber cascaded side pumping combiner

Abstract

Compared with end pumping fiber combiner, one of the advantages for side pumping combiner is the unlimited pumping points, which means multi-point or cascaded side pumping can be realized. However, the loss mechanism of the cascaded structure is rarely discussed. In this paper, we present the numerical and experimental investigation about the loss mechanism of a two-stage-cascaded side pumping combiner based on tapered-fused technique. The influence of loss mechanism on the coupling efficiency and thermal load of the fiber coating is analyzed according to simulations and experiments with different tapering ratios for the first stage. Based on the analysis, a cascaded component with total pump coupling efficiency of 96.4% handling a pump power of 1088 W is achieved by employing 1018 nm fiber laser as the pump source. Future work to further improve the performance of a cascaded side pumping combiner is discussed and prospected.