Single-frequency 1178nm SDL/Yb-PBGF MOPA with an output power of 31 W

We report on the use of a Semiconductor Disk Laser (SDL) as a seed laser for an Ytterbium-Doped Photonic Bandgap Fiber (Yb-PBGF) amplifier in a Master-Oscillator Power-Amplifier (MOPA) configuration. The SDL comprised a GaInAs/GaAs/GaAsP gain chip, a 1-mm-thick etalon for mode selection, and a 3-mm-thick birefringent filter for wavelength tuning. The fiber amplifier consisted of an Yb-doped core surrounded by a structure of periodically arranged germanium rods with a pitch of 10.2 μm, and to maintain the polarization, the fiber comprised two boron rods. The output of the MOPA-configuration was 31 W and the linewidth of the amplifier output was 149±31 kHz.