Advancements in High-Power Optical Fibers and Fiber Lasers

A special issue of Photonics (ISSN 2304-6732). This special issue belongs to the section "Optoelectronics and Optical Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 March 2027 | Viewed by 3031

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Laser Fusion Research Center, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang 621900, China
Interests: high-power Yb-doped fiber lasers; transverse mode instability (TMI); stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS); stimulated Raman scattering (SRS); specialty optical fibers for high-power amplification; tandem pumping schemes; thermal effects and management in fibers; polarization-maintaining fibers; narrow-linewidth fiber laser

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Co-Guest Editor
Laser Fusion Research Center, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang 621900, China
Interests: high-power fiber design; nonlinear effects in optical fibers; transverse modal instability

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

High-power ytterbium (Yb)-doped optical fibers and lasers have rapidly advanced, exerting a substantial influence across diverse scientific and engineering disciplines. Current challenges in high-power fiber lasers primarily arise from optical nonlinearities and thermal management constraints. Narrow-linewidth lasers (linewidth < 0.3 nm) are predominantly limited by Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS), whereas broadband lasers are constrained by Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS). Transverse mode instability (TMI) restricts the power of all single-mode and quasi-single-mode high-brightness fiber lasers. Mitigation strategies targeting these nonlinear effects involve fiber and system design optimizations, including passive and active control methods, to further enhance laser power. Recent advances in thermal management, such as tandem pumping configurations, have enabled the stable, long-term operation of tens of kilowatt class fiber lasers in continuous-wave industrial applications.

This Special Issue highlights recent progress in high-power fiber lasers, particularly Yb-doped systems. The scope includes advancements in nonlinear effect suppression, polarization-maintaining fiber lasers, ultra-high-power fiber laser development, and specialty fiber design. Acknowledging the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) tools like deepseek and ChatGPT on research productivity, this Special Issue also welcomes submissions showcasing novel AI applications in related research domains.

Main topics:

  • Stimulated Brillouin scattering
  • Stimulated Raman scattering
  • Transverse modal instability
  • Tandem pumping
  • Distributed side-coupled cladding pumping
  • Thermal management
  • Artificial intelligence-assisted optics
  • Polarized light
  • Material processing
  • Spectroscopy analysis
  • Specialty optical fibers
  • Fiber optic component

Dr. Fengyun Li
Dr. Chun Zhang
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • narrow-linewidth
  • tandem-pumping
  • stimulated Brillouin scattering
  • stimulated Raman scattering
  • transverse modal instability
  • nonlinear optics
  • near diffraction limit
  • fiber Bragg gratings
  • tilted fiber Bragg gratings

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

10 pages, 3735 KB  
Article
Sub-40 fs Pulses from a Tapered Yb-Doped Fiber Amplifier with Self-Similar Amplification
by Yaqi Wu, Bowen Liu, Genyu Bi and Minglie Hu
Photonics 2026, 13(5), 464; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics13050464 - 8 May 2026
Viewed by 401
Abstract
We extended self-similar amplification to a large-mode-area tapered Yb-doped fiber (LMA T-YDF) with longitudinally decreasing nonlinearity. The theoretical analysis and numerical simulation demonstrate that T-YDFs with different nonlinearity profiles can achieve self-similar evolution, which is confirmed by a self-similar amplifier that employs two [...] Read more.
We extended self-similar amplification to a large-mode-area tapered Yb-doped fiber (LMA T-YDF) with longitudinally decreasing nonlinearity. The theoretical analysis and numerical simulation demonstrate that T-YDFs with different nonlinearity profiles can achieve self-similar evolution, which is confirmed by a self-similar amplifier that employs two kinds of T-YDFs. Further experimental study indicates that the T-YDF with a large core diameter at the thin end can achieve self-similar evolution across a wide range of pump powers and generate 51 W average power, 34 fs nearly transform-limited (TL) pulses with 32 dB gain. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first theoretical and experimental demonstration of self-similar amplification in T-YDFs. The high-gain feature of the T-YDF simplifies the laser system and can be used to build a compact all-fiber high-power femtosecond laser source. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancements in High-Power Optical Fibers and Fiber Lasers)
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13 pages, 3051 KB  
Article
Impact of LD Spectra on Efficiency of Yb-Doped Fiber Laser
by Fengyun Li, Yi Shi, Chun Zhang, Qiuhui Chu, Lingli Huang, Haoyu Zhang, Qiang Shu, Yu Wen, Xingchen Jiang, Zixiang Gao, Honghuan Lin and Rumao Tao
Photonics 2025, 12(8), 806; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics12080806 - 11 Aug 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2018
Abstract
The spectral characteristics of pump laser diodes (LDs) introduce significant ambiguity into the performance evaluation of high-power ytterbium-doped fiber lasers (YDFLs), obscuring their intrinsic efficiency and hindering reliable system design. Here, we introduce a rigorous quantitative framework that decouples these pump-induced effects by [...] Read more.
The spectral characteristics of pump laser diodes (LDs) introduce significant ambiguity into the performance evaluation of high-power ytterbium-doped fiber lasers (YDFLs), obscuring their intrinsic efficiency and hindering reliable system design. Here, we introduce a rigorous quantitative framework that decouples these pump-induced effects by referencing laser performance to the absorbed, rather than the launched, pump power. Our analysis demonstrates that the widely reported discrepancies in conventional optical-to-optical (OO) and slope efficiencies are governed almost entirely by variations in pump absorption, while the influence of the quantum defect is negligible. This approach provides a robust metric for intrinsic laser performance that is independent of the LD’s spectral properties, proving particularly valuable for systems pumped by non-wavelength-stabilized LDs (nWS-LDs). We uncover a non-monotonic evolution of the unabsorbed residual pump power, revealing that the peak thermal load on system components occurs at an intermediate operational state, not at maximum pump power. This finding challenges conventional thermal management strategies and is critical for ensuring the long-term operational reliability of high-power YDFLs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancements in High-Power Optical Fibers and Fiber Lasers)
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