High-power Yb:YAG single-crystal fiber amplifiers for femtosecond lasers in cylindrical polarization

Opt Lett. 2015 Jun 1;40(11):2517-20. doi: 10.1364/OL.40.002517.

Abstract

We demonstrate a three-stage diode-pumped Yb:YAG single-crystal-fiber amplifier to generate femtosecond pulses at high average powers with linear or cylindrical (i.e., radial or azimuthal) polarization. At a repetition rate of 20 MHz, 750-fs pulses were obtained at an average power of 85 W in cylindrical polarization and at 100 W in linear polarization. The report includes investigations on the use of Yb:YAG single-crystal fibers with different length/doping ratio and the zero-phonon pumping at a wavelength of 969 nm in order to optimize the performance.