10-Watt-Level 1.7 μm Random Fiber Laser with Super-High Spectral Purity in a Cost-Effective and Robust Structure

Abstract

The 1.7 μm band eye-safe laser sources have recently received lots of attention thanks to the development of various applications. Although a variety of lasing configurations operating in this band have been demonstrated, one still needs to seek a good candidate for particular applications with a reasonable compromise between the relative performance targets (e.g., stability, output power, and spectral purity) and the construction cost. Here, we demonstrate a high-power 1694 nm random fiber laser (RFL) in a cost-effective structure pumped by a high-powered 1565 nm RFL. The maximum output power reached the 10 W level, and the output showed extremely low-intensity fluctuations for both the short-time and long-time regimes. Meanwhile, an excellent spectral purity as high as 26.9 dB was also realized. This work provides one of the most attractive approaches for constructing high-performance 1.7 μm band laser sources for practical applications.