Polarization controlled, tunable, Yb3+-doped fiber lasers

Ytterbium absorbs at 915 and 976nm. It also emits at 976nm and from 1060nm to even 1150nm, showing a quantum efficiency of up to 86%. In this experimental work, our novel inner cavity structures were firstly characterized and studied as free-running lasers from the 4% Fresnel reflection from the flat-cleaved fiber facets. The available pump source, a commercially available laser diode, had a maximum power of 0.5W at 915nm from which a coupled power (into the inner cladding) of 1W was reached; fiber laser efficiency reached, in our best case, 55% with respect to launched pump power. For the second part of the work, polarization controlled Yb-doped fiber laser cavities were studied by way of inserting a polarized beam splitter and a lambda/4 wave-plate into de cavity. From this, 177mW of single polarization output were obtained by rotating the wave-plate until the maximum points were identified on a wave-plate angle vs. output power plot. The maximum output power was 200mW from 60 degrees to 90 degrees aprox. Now, based on the data obtained, one can claim that at least 40% of the maximum output power available from the laser was linearly polarized. Finally, a 600 lines/mm bulk grating was employed in order to obtain laser tuning results on a traditional way. i.e. by reflecting lasing into the cavity and selecting output from the close end. The tuning range was measured to be from 1088nm up to 1097nm. All these results and possible applications will be discussed in detail.