10.4 kW coherently combined ultrafast fiber laser

TL;DR

This paper presents a high-power ultrafast fiber laser system achieving 10.4 kW average power through coherent combination of twelve fiber amplifiers, with excellent beam quality and stability, enabling automated operation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel coherent combination approach for ultrafast fiber lasers reaching over 10 kW power with high beam quality and automated alignment.

Findings

Achieved 10.4 kW average power with coherent combination.

Produced 254 fs pulses at 80 MHz repetition rate.

Maintained high beam quality (M2<=1.2) and low noise (0.56%).

Abstract

An ultrafast laser delivering 10.4 kW average output power based on coherent combination of twelve stepindex fiber amplifiers is presented. The system emits close-to-transform-limited 254 fs pulses at 80 MHz repetition rate, has a high beam quality (M2<=1.2), and a low relative intensity noise of 0.56% in the frequency range of from 1 Hz to 1 MHz. Automated spatiotemporal alignment allows for hands-off operation.