Mitigating of modal instabilities in linearly-polarized fiber amplifiers by shifting pump wavelength

We investigated the effect of pump wavelength on the modal instabilities (MI) in high-power linearly polarized Yb-doped fiber amplifiers. We built a novel semi-analytical model to determine the frequency coupling characteristics and power threshold of MI, which indicates promising MI suppression through pumping at an appropriate wavelength. By pumping at 915 nm, the threshold can be enhanced by a factor of 2.1 as compared to that pumped at 976 nm. Based on a high-power linearly polarized fiber amplifier platform, we studied the influence of pump wavelength experimentally. A maximal enhancement factor of 1.9 has been achieved when pumped at 915 nm, which agrees with the theoretical calculation and verified our theoretical model. Furthermore, we show that MI suppression by detuning the pump wavelength is weakened for fiber with a large core-to-cladding ratio.