Abstract

We report on what we believe is the first demonstration of an ytterbium-doped fiber laser pumped by an Yb:YAG thin-disk laser at 1030 nm [1]. This fiber laser essentially acts as an efficient brilliance converter suitable for all applications requiring a near-diffraction limited kilowatt-class solid-state laser source. Since it can be realized in a compact set-up without much supply, the fiber laser can be positioned close to the application at the end of long-distance fiber-optic beam-delivery cables, which solves the problem of non-linear effects usually occurring with high-brightness radiation in passive fibers. For a new customized fiber, which will be available soon, an efficiency of 85 % is predicted by reliable simulations and validated by experiments.

© 2009 IEEE