10.4 kW coherently combined ultrafast fiber laser
Michael Müller, Christopher Aleshire, Arno Klenke, Elissa Haddad, François Légaré, Andreas Tünnermann, Jens Limpert
Abstract
An ultrafast laser delivering 10.4 kW average output power based on a coherent combination of 12 step-index fiber amplifiers is presented. The system emits close-to-transform-limited 254 fs pulses at an 80 MHz repetition rate, and has a high beam quality ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">M</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> <mml:mo>≤</mml:mo> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mn>1.2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> ) and a low relative intensity noise of 0.56% in the frequency range of 1 Hz to 1 MHz. Automated spatiotemporal alignment allows for hands-off operation.