High Power Laser Science and Engineering, (2019), Vol. 7, e18, 6 pages.
© The Author(s) 2019. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
doi:10.1017/hpl.2019.1
Mitigation of stimulated Raman scattering in
kilowatt-level diode-pumped fiber amplifiers with
chirped and tilted fiber Bragg gratings
Meng Wang
1,2,3
, Le Liu
1,2,3
, Zefeng Wang
1,2,3
, Xiaoming Xi
1,2,3
, and Xiaojun Xu
1,2,3
1
College of Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, China
2
State Key Laboratory of Pulsed Power Laser Technology, Changsha 410073, China
3
Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of High Energy Laser Technology, Changsha 410073, China
(Received 18 November 2018; revised 21 December 2018; accepted 8 January 2019)
Abstract
The average power of diode-pumped fiber lasers has been developed deeply into the kW regime in the past years.
However, stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) is still a major factor limiting the further power scaling. Here, we have
demonstrated the mitigation of SRS in kilowatt-level diode-pumped fiber amplifiers using a chirped and tilted fiber Bragg
grating (CTFBG) for the first time. The CTFBG is designed and inscribed in large-mode-area (LMA) fibers, matching
with the operating wavelength of the fiber amplifier. With the CTFBG inserted between the seed laser and the amplifier
stage, an SRS suppression ratio of ∼10 dB is achieved in spectrum at the maximum output laser power of 2.35 kW,
and there is no reduction in laser slope efficiency and degradation in beam quality. This work proves the feasibility and
practicability of CTFBGs for SRS suppression in high-power fiber lasers, which is very useful for the further power
scaling.
Keywords: fiber Bragg gratings; fiber lasers; high power; stimulated Raman scattering
1. Introduction
In the past decade, due to the advantages of diffraction-
limited beam quality, compactness, high efficiency, stability
and robustness, high-power fiber lasers have been intensively
researched and used in many applications
[1–3]
. With the
deepening of research on limitation factors of power scaling
in fiber lasers, such as pump brightness, nonlinear effects
and thermal induced modal instability (TMI), the output
power has experienced an outstanding increase. Considering
convenience and cost, laser diode is the most common pump
source for kilowatt-level fiber lasers. Among the limitation
factors, stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) is one of the
primary limits for further power scaling and reliability of
diode-pumped fiber laser systems. Once SRS effect occurs,
the energy of pump light would convert to that of Stokes
light, which leads to the decline of signal power. At the same
time, the backward propagating Stokes wave is a threat to the
whole system and will seriously affect the normal operation
of the seed oscillator. Therefore suppression of SRS has
become a quite essential research content for fiber lasers.
Correspondence to: Z. Wang, No. 109 Deya Road, Kaifu District,
Changsha 410073, China. Email: hotrosemaths@163.com
So far, researchers have proposed many methods for SRS
suppression in fiber systems, such as the application of
large-mode-area (LMA) fibers or enlarging the fiber mode
area
[4]
, spectrally selective fibers
[5–8]
, or lumped spectral
filters
[9–11]
like long-period gratings (LPGs). It might be
the most effective technique to suppress SRS by enlarging
the fiber mode area of LMA fibers. But the enlarging of
fiber mode area must be combined with controlling numer-
ical aperture (NA) for the operation of fundamental mode.
Otherwise it will lead to a decreased TMI threshold in fiber
lasers, which also limits further power scaling. It is quite
difficult to realize by today’s material and manufacturing
technologies of fibers. The designing of spectrally selective
fibers is usually very complex. Besides, it is also not
easy to manufacture such fibers and it is still limited by
the maximum fiber core size that can be employed. The
working principle of lumped filters is similar to that of
spectrally selective fibers, but it is much easier to design and
fabricate such filters. LPGs have good filtering properties by
coupling the Raman light from the core mode to the cladding
mode
[9]
, but the filtering characters of LPGs are unstable
for their high sensitivities to the environment variables such
as temperature, strain or humidity. Chirped and tilted fiber
1