More than 400 W random fiber laser with excellent beam quality

We report on the demonstration of a high power, high beam quality random fiber laser. It is a half-open cavity based on 130-m-long large mode area step-index fiber with a core diameter of 20 mu m and a numerical aperture of 0.08. The random laser cavity, whose central wavelength is 1120 nm, is pumped by a 1070 nm Yb-doped fiber oscillator. The maximum output power is 418 W with respect to the injected pump power of 588 W, corresponding to the optical-to-optical efficiency of 71%. The output power, spectral, and temporal characteristics are carefully presented and discussed, showing that such a cavity can export high power random laser stably and effectively. The far field beam quality is also measured, and the profile is nearly a Gaussian shape. This work provides an impactful method to advance the output power of random fiber lasers. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America