High-power near-infrared linearly-polarized supercontinuum generation in a polarization-maintaining Yb-doped fiber amplifier

We report an all-fiber linearly-polarized (LP) supercontinuum (SC) source with high average power generated in a polarization-maintaining (PM) master-oscillation power-amplifier (MOPA). The experimental configuration comprises an LP picosecond pulsed laser and three PM Yd-doped fiber amplifiers (YDFA). The output has the average power of 124.8 W with the spectrum covering from 850 to 1900 nm. The measured polarization extinction ratio (PER) of the whole SC source is about 85% which verifies the SC an LP source. This work is, to our best knowledge, the highest output average power of an LP SC source that ever reported. The influence of PM fiber splicing method on the LP SC property is investigated by splicing the PM fibers with slow axis parallel or perpendicularly aligned, and also an LP SC with low output power is demonstrated. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America