1.89 kW all-fiberized and polarization-maintained amplifiers with narrow linewidth and near-diffraction-limited beam quality

In this manuscript, we demonstrate high power, all-fiberized and polarization-maintained amplifiers with narrow linewidth and near-diffraction-limited beam quality by simultaneously suppressing detrimental stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and mode instability (MI) effects. Compared with strictly single frequency amplification, the SBS threshold is scaled up to 12 dB, 15.4 dB, and higher than 18 dB by subsequently using three-stage cascaded phase modulation systems. Output powers of 477 W, 1040 W, and 1890 W are achieved with full widths at half maximums (FWHMs) of within 6 GHz, similar to 18.5 GHz, and similar to 45 GHz, respectively. The MI threshold is increased from similar to 738 W to 1890 W by coiling the active fiber in the main amplifier. Both the polarization extinction ratio (PER) and beam quality (M-2 factor) are maintained well during the power scaling process. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of all-fiberized amplifiers with narrow linewidth, near linear polarization, and near-diffraction-limited beam quality at 2 kW power-level. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America