Thermal characteristics of an end-pumped high-power ytterbium-sensitized erbium-doped fiber laser under natural convection

• Main Authors: Jeong, Y. (Author), Baek, S. (Author), Dupriez, P. (Author), Maran, J.-N (Author), Sahu, J.K (Author), Nilsson, J. (Author), Lee, B. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2008-11-24.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

We investigate the thermal characteristics of a polymer-clad fiber laser under natural convection when it is strongly pumped up to the damage point of the fiber. For this, we utilize a temperature sensing technique based on a fiber Bragg grating sensor array. We have measured the longitudinal temperature distribution of a 2.4m length ytterbium-sensitized erbium-doped fiber laser that was end-pumped at ~975nm. The measured temperature distribution decreases exponentially, approximately, decaying away from the pump-launch end. We attribute this to the heat dissipation of absorbed pump power. The maximum temperature difference between the fiber ends was approximately 190K at the maximum pump power of 60.8W. From this, we estimate that the core temperature reached ~236°C.