Optical fiber microstructuration for strengthening single-mode laser operation in high power regime

We propose an in-depth investigation of all-solid microstructured optical fibers for the development of very large mode area (VLMA) fiber lasers. The inner cladding microstructure of these VLMA fibers is carefully optimized in order to get a robust single-mode laser operation in the high power regime. We describe the numerical approach used to devise a novel kind of fiber structures, the core of which should be larger than 50 m while showing an improved single-mode emission compared to that of the state-of-the-art large pitch fibers. With the aim of overpassing the limitations of chemical vapor deposition techniques, we opted for a manufacturing process called Repusil, based on the sintering and vitrification of doped powders. Then, our opto-geometrical considerations result from the optical properties offered by this method and the use of the stack and draw. Finally, we present our very first fabrication for the proposed all-solid microstructured fibers in which a laser emission of 52 W in a continuous wave regime was obtained. (C) 2014 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)