Eyesafe high peak power pulsed fiber lasers limited by fiber nonlinearity

Abstract : We present design and performances of several eye-safe high peak power fiber lasers operating either around 1550 nm or 2000 nm. They share the limitations by nonlinear effects either Stimulated Brillouin Scattering for single frequency lasers or Kerr related effects for short pulse amplifiers. Performances above 1 kW peak power for single frequency lasers and 26 nJ for short pulse fiber lasers are reported. The influence of the saturation power of the fibers on the non-linearity is discussed and applied to a comparison between Erbium and Ytterbium co-doped fibers and Thulium doped fibers. The Brillouin gain properties in these fibers are also compared.