Impact of Stimulated Raman Scattering on the Transverse Mode Instability Threshold

Quantum defect originating from the stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) effect is a heat source that induces refractive index grating and, thus, significantly decreases the threshold of transverse mode instability (TMI), which is the main limiting factor for the power scaling of high-power fiber laser...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Zebiao Li, Chengyu Li, Yu Liu, Qiang Luo, Honghuan Lin, Zhihua Huang, Shanhui Xu, Zhongmin Yang, Jianjun Wang, Feng Jing
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2018-01-01
Series:IEEE Photonics Journal
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8371281/
Description
Summary:Quantum defect originating from the stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) effect is a heat source that induces refractive index grating and, thus, significantly decreases the threshold of transverse mode instability (TMI), which is the main limiting factor for the power scaling of high-power fiber lasers. A semi-analytical model that takes the TMI and SRS effects into account was developed, and the impact of the Raman content variation due to changes in the injected seed and fiber length on the TMI threshold was investigated. Experimental demonstrations of the impact of the SRS effect on the TMI threshold are presented. We proved that TMI affects the beam quality of the signal light rather than the Raman light. Taking these facts into account, the suppression of SRS could be an effective way to counter the TMI of fiber lasers.
ISSN:1943-0655