High power linearly polarized fiber laser: Generation, manipulation and application

Linearly-polarized (LP) fiber lasers, which could find wide potential applications such as coherent detection, coherent/spectral beam combining, nonlinear frequency conversion, have been a research focus in recent years. In this paper, we will present a general review on the achievements of various kinds of high power LP fiber laser and its applications for the first time. The recent progress in high power LP fiber oscillator, including fiber oscillator based on active fiber, Raman fiber laser and Random distributed feedback fiber laser are summarized. Power scaling of LP fiber laser by using active-fiber based power amplifier, passive-fiber based Raman amplifier, and active/passive fiber based hybrid fiber amplifier has been achieved. Polarization-maintained active fiber based power amplifier and non-polarization-maintained active fiber based power amplifier incorporating active polarization control are specially introduced in detail. High power LP fiber laser with diversified property, such as narrow-linewidth, wavelength-tunable and ultrashort pulse operation, are summarized. Various kinds application of high power LP fiber laser, including beam combining, supercontinumm generation, mid-infrared lasing, structured light field and ultrasonic generation, are presented at the end of this paper.