Industrial mJ-class all-fiber front end with spatially coherent top-hat beam output used as seeder for high power laser

In large scale laser facility dedicated to laser-matter interaction including inertial confinement fusion, such as LMJ or NIF, high-energy main amplifier is injected by a laser source in which the beam parameters must be controlled. For many years, the CEA has developed nano-joule pulses all-fiber front end sources, based on the telecommunications fiber optics technologies. Thanks to these technologies, we have been able to precisely control temporal shaping and phase-modulated pulse. Nowadays, fiber lasers are able to deliver very high power beams and high energy pulses for industrial needs (laser marking, welding,…). Therefore, we have currently developed new nanosecond pulses fibered amplifiers able to increase output pulse energy up to the mJ level. These amplifiers are based on flexible fibers and not on rod type. This allows us to achieve a compact source. Nevertheless the intensity profile of theses fibers usually has a Gaussian shape. To be compatible with main amplifier section injection, the Gaussian intensity profile must then be transformed into ‘top-hat’ profile. To reach the goal, we have recently developed an elegant and efficient solution based on a single-mode fiber which directly delivers a spatially coherent ‘top-hat’ beam. In the conference, we will present this mJ-class top-hat all-fiber laser system, the results and the industrial prototype which can be used as a front-end of high-power lasers or as a seeder for other types of lasers.