Abstract

We have recently demonstrated significant scaling potential of resonantly cladding-pumped Yb-free, Er-doped fiber lasers. With the resonant pumping approach heat deposition can potentially be limited by low quantum defect only, which opens up significant space for fiber laser power scaling with very minor, if any, thermal management complications. Reported here are the most noteworthy results of power and efficiency scaling of integrated, potentially all-glass, resonantly cladding-pumped Yb-free Er-doped fiber lasers and amplifiers. Spectrally-narrowed InGaAsP/InP fiber coupled 1530-nm diode laser modules were used for integrated pumping. It is shown that, though Er³⁺ ion is spectroscopically much more complex than Yb³⁺, with proper fiber design optimization optical-to-optical efficiency of Er-doped fiber lasers can be as high as that of Yb-doped. Most of the results were obtained based on commercially available silica-based fibers with no special fiber development, though some results with the special experimental glass compositions are also presented.

© 2012 Optical Society of America