Very large mode area ytterbium fiber amplifier with aluminum-doped pump cladding made by powder sinter technology

We demonstrate amplification experiments using a very large mode area Yb-doped double-clad fiber with 100 µm aluminum-cer codoped core and 440 µm pump cladding realized by high aluminum codoping. The material for core and pump cladding was fabricated by reactive powder sinter technology. A high numerical aperture (NA) of the pump cladding with NA = 0.21 and a low one of the core with NA = 0.084 could be realized. Using a 0.55 m short fiber sample as the main amplifier in a three-stage ns pulsed fiber master oscillator power amplifier system we achieved 3 ns, 2 mJ output pulses with 360 kW peak power limited by the available pump power. Stimulated Raman scattering effects and amplified spontaneous emission were successfully suppressed. (letter)