Specialty Optical Fibers Handbook

wall-plug efficiencies), high output power, high beam quality (near–diffraction-

limited) lasers for a vast array of material processing applications. More

specifically, fiber lasers have a number of distinct advantages over their more

conventional alternatives including size, reliability, wavelength selectivity, heat

dissipation, wall-plug efficiency, and operational cost. Furthermore, they may be

operated without the need for active cooling or optical alignment.

LMA fiber technology has become an established means of power scaling

fiber lasers and amplifiers, and as the basic fiber design has become standard-

ized, this has encouraged component manufacturers to design and build high-

power LMA-compatible devices. Consequently, the ytterbium-doped ...