∼1 kilowatt Ytterbium-doped all-solid photonic bandgap fiber laser

Transverse mode instability (TMI) has been recognized as a major limit to average power scaling of single-mode fiber laser besides the optical nonlinear effects. One key to mitigate TMI is to suppress the higher-order modes (HOMs) propagation in the optical fiber. By implementing additional cores in the optical fiber cladding, HOMs can be resonantly coupled from the main core to the surrounding cladding cores, leading to better HOMs suppression. Here, we demonstrate an Yb-doped multiple-cladding-resonant all-solid photonic bandgap fiber with a similar to 60 mu m diameter core for high power fiber lasers. The fiber has a multiple-cladding-resonant design in order to provide better HOMs suppression. Maximum laser power of 910w is achieved for a direct diode-pumped fiber laser without TMI with a 9m long fiber at 60cm coil diameter, breaking the TMI threshold of 800w that has been observed in large-mode-area PCFs with similar to 40 mu m core. This result is limited by fiber end burning due to the un-optimized thermal management. Later experiment demonstrates maximum laser power of 1050w with 90% lasing efficiency versus absorbed pump power in a 8m long fiber coiled at 80cm diameter, limited by the pump source. However, the fiber bending condition needs to be optimized in order to produce a better laser beam quality.