This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been
fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/LPT.2019.2901504, IEEE Photonics
Technology Letters
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High power, independently wavelength, power
and linewidth tunable Ytterbium fiber laser
V. Balaswamy, Santosh Aparanji, Great Chayran and V. R. Supradeepa
Abstract — We report a high power, independently tunable
wavelength, linewidth and power, continuous-wave (CW)
Ytterbium-doped fiber laser. Our system is based on simple
master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) configuration which
decouples output power from the output wavelength and
linewidth. We demonstrate a continuously tunable laser system
that can generate any output power level upto and beyond 100W,
wavelength from 1050nm to 1100nm and linewidth tuning of 2.5
times from 0.4nm to 1nm completely independent of each other.
Index Terms — Lasers; Lasers, ring; Lasers, single-mode;
Lasers, tunable; Linewidth; Fiber optics amplifiers and
oscillators.
I. INTRODUCTION
Over the last decade, fiber lasers have undergone substantial
power scaling reaching multiple kilowatts of output power [1].
This power scaling has been largely driven by Ytterbium (Yb)
doped fiber lasers [1]. This is mainly due to inherent material
advantages offered by fiber lasers based on Yb, such as low
quantum defect (less thermo-optic effects), no detrimental
concentration quenching effects enabling high doping
concentrations (high gain) etc., which made them superior
candidates for power scaling [1]. In addition to power scaling
capability, Yb doped fibers also have large fluorescence
spectrum which enables continuous wavelength tunability [2].
High power tunable laser sources around 1μm wavelength
region are used in many important applications including
metrology, photochemistry, spectroscopy and medical
treatment [3]. Also, such high power, wavelength tunable Yb
doped fiber lasers are extensively used for industrial material
and defense applications. Such properties along with superior
spatial quality of the beam enabled them to be also used as
excellent pump sources for tandem pumping [4], optical
parametric amplifiers [5] and Raman fiber lasers [6]. High
power wavelength tunable property of fiber laser source
enables the realization of high power continuously tunable
Raman fiber lasers which are based on the random distributed
feedback using the architectures shown in [7,8].
Also, there has been interest in utilizing tunable Yb fiber
laser for spectral beam combining application where it forms
the basic building block [9,10]. In contrast to lasers at fixed
All the authors are with the Centre for Nanoscience and Engineering, Indian
Institute of Science, Bangalore, Karnataka, 560012, India. (Email:
supradeepa@iisc.ac.in).
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1
wavelengths which requires inventory of several modules, the
use of tunable lasers enables a single basic source unit. There
are number of reports published on continuously tunable Yb
doped fiber lasers in continuous mode of operation using an
intracavity tunable filter either in ring or linear cavity
configurations [3], [11-17]. In all the reports mentioned above,
quasi-three level behavior of the Yb doped fiber has been
exploited to demonstrate wavelength tuning ranging from
1030nm to 1100nm [16] by using an acousto-optic tunable
filter. However, in addition to wavelength tuning, it would be
very desirable to also have independent linewidth tuning of the
laser. For spectral beam combining, there is an inverse relation
between the number of combined lasers and the linewidth of
each laser. A linewidth tunable laser enables the identification
of optimal spectral beam combining parameters.
Tuning of linewidth and wavelength independent of power
enables the study of a number of important processes. For
example, linewidth or coherence dependence of various
material processing applications can be studied. Another
important application is - through tuning the linewidth, noise
or coherence properties of the laser can be modified and this
enables the study of the nonlinear response of systems and
how this is affected by the laser coherence. For example, we
are interested in the behavior of Raman gain in optical fibers
as a function of laser linewidth and the role dispersion places
in this.
Tunable linewidth fiber lasers (based on Yb doped fibers or
other dopants) can also be used as agile pump sources for the
class of lasers referred to as hybrid lasers where bulk solid-
state lasers are pumped by fiber lasers. In such hybrid lasers,
both wavelength and linewidth tuning can be used where, by
tuning the wavelength of the pump laser (fiber laser), resonant
pumping can be achieved and by the ability to tune linewidth,
optimal pump absorption condition can be studied [18].
In conventional high-power fiber lasers, a serious limitation
is that, the linewidth and output power are closely related
through a power law with coefficient varying from 0.5 to 1. As
a result, it is practically impossible to separate the effects
arising from linewidth alone and from power alone. In a best-
case scenario, one can achieve a single operating power with a
required linewidth through proper system design. But such a
system can work only at that specific linewidth for that specific
power.
Independent linewidth tuning has been previously
demonstrated in [16] had used an externally driven, acousto-
optic filter, an active component in a free-space architecture, at
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power levels up to 41W. In this work, we propose and
demonstrate a simple, all-fiber, high power Yb doped fiber
laser with no active components which provides independent
tuning of wavelength, linewidth and power. Our system [19] is
based on a simple two stage design consisting of a master
oscillator and a power amplifier (MOPA) in backward
pumping configuration. The backward pumped configuration
used in our system enables substantial decoupling of the
dependence of linewidth on output power. In this work, the
laser system demonstrated can generate any output power level
upto and beyond 100W, wavelength from 1050nm to 1100nm
and linewidth tuning of 2.5 times from 0.4nm to 1nm
completely independent of each other.
II. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
Fig. 1(a) shows the schematic of the experimental setup. It
consists of a continuously tunable wavelength seed laser and
power amplifier in backward pumped configuration. An
isolator is placed in between to protect the seed laser from any
unwanted back reflections and amplified spontaneous emission
noise. Fig 1(b) shows the continuously tunable wavelength
seed laser. It is in a unidirectional ring configuration with a
maximum output power of 12W. The Yb doped double clad
gain fiber used has the length of 13m with a peak cladding
absorption near 975nm is 1.65dB/m
Fig. 1. (a) Schematic of experimental setup; (b) Tunable seed laser; (c)
Power amplifier in backward pumped configuration.
The diameter of the core is 5µm with 0.12NA and that of the
cladding is 125µm with 0.46NA. A fiber coupled pump laser
diode operating at 975nm is used as a pump source operated at
an output power of 20W. A thin-film (Fabry-Perot) based
tunable band pass filter is used for wavelength tuning from
1050nm to 1100nm. The maximum insertion loss due to filter
is 3.8dB. A high power (2W) in-line isolator operating at 1064
nm is placed in the cavity to ensure unidirectional operation. It
provides an isolation of greater than 28 dB and insertion loss
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2
of less than 2.6dB. A 90/10 fused fiber coupler is used to
extract out the laser power from the ring cavity which provides
an insertion loss of 0.71dB between the input and output (90%
port), and the output power measured from the coupler (90%
port) was a maximum of ~12W at all the wavelengths (1050 to
1100nm). Fig 1(c) shows the power amplifier in backward
pumped configuration. The Yb doped gain fiber used has a
length of 20m. It has the same parameters as that used for seed
laser. Three fiber coupled pump laser diodes operating at
976nm with maximum output power of 50W are used for
pumping. A (6+1) x1 pump combiner (tapered fiber bundle)
with a signal insertion loss of 0.65dB is used to power
combine all the three pump laser diodes. A high power 20W
in-line isolator is placed between the tunable wavelength seed
laser and the power amplifier to protect the seed laser from any
unwanted back reflections and amplified spontaneous
emission. It provides an isolation of greater than 20dB and the
insertion loss of less than 1.2dB. As will be demonstrated in
the next section, the backward pumping configuration has the
advantages of greater linewidth tunability and higher
efficiencies than forward pumping configuration. The
efficiency of the power amplifier achieved was ~81% with a
maximum output power of ~130W at full power.
III. OPERATING PRINCIPLE AND PUMPING SCHEMES
The linewidth versus output power characteristics of high
power fiber laser in the form of a single stage oscillator
follows power law as shown in [18]. Hence we can’t tune the
linewidth independently without affecting the output power in
such systems. Therefore, linewidth and output power needs to
be decorrelated for tuning the linewidth at a constant power.
Such a functionality can’t be achieved with a single stage. For
that, ideally we need to have a two stage system, where 1st
stage is a low power seed laser (oscillator) with linewidth
versus output power following power law characteristics, and
an ideal power amplifier in the 2nd stage where it just amplifies
(with varying gain) the power input of the seed laser without
affecting its linewidth. Such a system enables linewidth tuning
just by changing the output power of seed laser. However,
having such an ideal power amplifier is not possible as there
are always nonlinear effects (such as self-phase modulation,
four-wave mixing) which affects the linewidth. However, a
backward pumped high gain amplifier was identified to be a
suitable candidate for the power amplifier. We initially
considered both the forward and backward configurations for
the power amplifier. Figures 2(a) and 2(b) shows the schematic
representation of forward and backward pumped high gain
power amplifiers. The results for output power versus
linewidth are shown in figures 2(c) and 2(d). In the case of
forward pumping, at a constant output power, the range of
linewidth tuning is small and also the oscillator (seed laser)
becomes unstable at higher power due to large backward
amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). The relationship
between output power and linewidth follows power law with
exponent of ~1 at higher powers [20]. Such a system is not
usable for linewidth tuning as it not only becomes unstable at
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higher power and but also provides only a small linewidth
tuning range.
In the case of backward pumping, system is stable even at
high power operation. This is due to smaller ASE power
compared to forward pumping case, as the signal power is high
where the gain is high along the length of the amplifier (i.e.,
signal holds the maximum gain), going back into the oscillator.
Also, due to reduced effective nonlinear length (signal power
is high towards the end of the length of amplifier), linewidth
tuning range is enhanced at a constant power. Therefore,
backward pumping is used in our experiments as it
approximately matches the behavior of ideal power amplifier.
Fig. 2. Schematic representation of (a) Forward pumping; (b) Backward
pumping; (c) Linewidth vs power characteristics of forward pumping (d)
backward pumping
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IV. RESULTS
Fig 3 (a) shows wavelength tuning characteristics of the
system at 100W. As shown in the figure, continuous
wavelength tuning of 50nm from 1050nm to 1100nm has been
achieved. The tunable band pass filter used in the seed laser
has been used for this purpose. Even though, the data sheet of
filter specifies that it can be tunable from 1020nm to 1100nm,
the operation below 1050nm is not stable due to large gain at
ASE wavelengths in the amplifier. Through the use of a filter
with a longer wavelength cut-off, we anticipate the tuning
range can be further enhanced beyond 1100nm. Because of the
use of backward pumping configuration, there was no
significant amount of ASE power observed even at longer
wavelength (1100nm) operation. Fig 3(b) shows the output
power characteristics of the backward pumped power. These
characteristics are plotted for the wavelength of 1085nm, and
the maximum output power achieved was ~130W. the same
amount of output power has been observed over the entire
wavelength tuning range from 1050nm to 1100nm.
Fig. 3. (a) Wavelength tuning characteristics of MOPA at 100W; (b) Output
power characteristics of backward pumped power amplifier
Fig 4 (a) shows the linewidth vs output power of the tunable
seed laser. All the linewidths were measured using optical
spectrum analyzer with 0.02nm resolution. The values of
linewidth (< 0.2nm to 1nm) obtained at the output of the seed
laser follows a linear relationship with power. By the choice of
different operating points of the seed laser, different linewidth
values are given as input to the power amplifier and as the
power to the amplifier is enhanced, the linewidth gets slightly
broadened due to nonlinear processes occurring inside the
amplifier. Fig 4(b) shows the linewidth tuning results. The
figure shows the results for 1085nm wavelength, but similar
behavior is observed for all the wavelengths over the tuning
range (1050nm to 1100nm). However, for smaller linewidths,
since the gain of the amplifier is correspondingly higher due to
lower input powers with potential for parasitic events, we
performed the experiment only until the 100W output power
level. As shown in figure, at each power level, a range of
linewidths can be achieved. At the 30W level, linewidth can be
varied continuously from 0.2nm to >1nm, while at the 100W
level, linewidth can be varied from ~0.4nm to ~1.4nm. From
the intersection of the two ranges, this laser can achieve tuning
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of output power up to 100W, while at each power level, the
linewidth can be independently tuned 2.5X from 0.4nm to
1nm. In the experiments the pump power input to the seed
laser has been varied to achieve linewidth tuning. Here, the
results of experiments performed are shown (red circles), but
since the linewidth variation is continuous for the seed laser,
the system provides access to entire range between the two
blue curves shown. Figure 4(c) shows a representative high-
resolution spectrum at 1084nm as the linewidth is tuned.
Fig. 4. (a) Linewidth vs power of seed laser; (b) Linewidth vs power of
MOPA; (c) High resolution spectra (0.02nm) at 1084nm as linewidth is tuned
V. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
In summary, this work reports a high power Yb doped fiber
laser with continuous tuning of wavelength, linewidth and
power independent of each other. The laser is a two stage
MOPA system consisting of a ring-laser based wavelength
tunable master oscillator and a backward pumped power
amplifier. We achieved a simultaneous linewidth tuning of
0.4nm to 1.0nm, wavelength tuning from 1050nm to 1100nm
and power tuning of upto and beyond 100W with this system.
We anticipate the tuning range of linewidths can be further
enhanced through the use of a higher power seed source
possibly made with larger effective area fiber to achieve a
greater range of linewidths at its output which is then
amplified by the power amplifier. Even though the system
shown here is with Yb doped fiber laser operating near 1μm
wavelength region, the same principles are applicable for other
rare earth doped fiber lasers operating at different wavelength
regions such as the 1.5μm.
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