Kilowatt-level ytterbium-Raman fiber amplifier with a narrow-linewidth and near-diffraction-limited beam quality

By focusing on a typical emitting wavelength of 1120 nm as an example, we present the first, to the best of our knowledge, demonstration of a high-efficiency, narrowlinewidth kilowatt-level all-fiber amplifier based on hybrid ytterbium-Raman (Yb-Raman) gains. Notably, two temporally stable, phase-modulated single-frequency lasers operating at 1064 nm and 1120 nm, respectively, were applied in the fiber amplifier, to simultaneously alleviate the spectral broadening of the 1120 nm signal laser and suppress the stimulated Brillouin scattering effect. An over 1 kW narrow-linewidth 1120 nm signal laser was obtained with slope efficiency of similar to 77% and beam quality of M-x(2) similar to 1.25 M-y(2) similar to 1.17. The amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise in the fiber amplifier was effectively suppressed by incorporating an ASE-filtering system between the seed laser and the main amplifier. Furthermore, the experimental results demonstrate that the spectral linewidth broadening effect is tightly related. to the injected power ratios between the two seed lasers. Overall, this setup could provide a reference on obtaining and optimizing high-power narrow-linewidth fiber lasers operating in the long wavelength extreme of the Yb gain spectrum. (C) 2020 Optical Society of America