Over 10-kW fiber laser spectral beam combination based on dichromatic mirrors

Abstract

Owing to the advantages of good beam quality, high conversion efficiency, convenient thermal management and compact structure, high power fiber lasers have been widely desired in industrial processing. So far, the output power has been strictly limited by the nonlinear effects and transverse mode instability. In order to break through the power limitation, here we experimentally demonstrate a power boosting technology called spectral beam combination based on dichromatic mirrors. Firstly, high power fiber amplifiers with different central wavelengths are established for the spectral combination. Secondly, utilizing a dual-beam combined system and two homemade high power fiber amplifiers, an output power of 10 kW is achieved, with a remarkable combination efficiency of 98.3% and a beam quality of <i>M</i> ²～1.33. Secondly, using a three-beam combined system, an output power of 13.5 kW is obtained with a combination efficiency of 96.8% and beam quality of <i>M</i> ²～1.61. By increasing the number of input beams and their output power as well, we believe that a higher output power can be achieved based on dichromatic mirror spectral beam combination.