Ten-year review and prospect on mode instability research of fiber lasers

The report about mode instability in 2010 has begun the history of struggling with the waste heat in fiber lasers. This paper presents a 10-year research progress of mode instability research, including physical demonstrations, physical mechanism, theoretical investigation, various impact factors and effective mitigating strategies. The most recent results on mode instability suppressing are also included as well as the future development trend of mode instability research. (authors)