Single-mode spectral beam combining of high power Tm-doped fiber lasers with WDM cascades

Abstract

Spectral beam combining of Tm-doped fiber lasers can increase the laser output power while simultaneously maintaining the single mode beam quality. We report on a spectral beam combining technique based on highly efficient in-house-made WDM cascade. We demonstrate continuous wave power combining employing a WDM cascade consisting of four fiber laser sources with emission wavelengths of 1920, 1949, 1996 and 2030 nm. A combined power of up to 38 W resulted in a combining efficiency of 69%.