High power Yb-doped photonic bandgap fiber oscillator at 1178 nm.

An ytterbium-doped solid-core photonic bandgap fiber oscillator in an all-fiber format is investigated for high power at an extreme long wavelength. The photonic bandgap fiber is spliced with two fiber Bragg gratings to compose the cavity. The sharp-cut bandpass distributed filtering effect of the photonic bandgap fibers efficiently suppresses amplified spontaneous emission in the conventional high-gain region. Fine adjustment of the short cut-off wavelength by coiling with tighter diameter is performed to suppress parasitic lasing. A record output power of 53.6 W with a slope efficiency of 53% at 1178 nm was demonstrated.