Design of intrinsically single-mode double clad crystalline fiber waveguides for high power lasers

Recently, double-clad crystalline fiber waveguides (CFWs), consisting of single crystalline or ceramic RE3+:YAG cores of square cross section and inner claddings of either undoped or laser-inactive-ion-doped YAG and outer claddings of sapphire, have been successfully demonstrated. These waveguides, manufactured by an Adhesive-Free Bonding (AFB (R)) technique, can be precisely engineered and fabricated with predictable beam propagation behavior. In this work, with high power laser designs in mind, minimum thicknesses for inner cladding are derived for different core cross sections and refractive index differences between the core and inner cladding and sapphire as outer cladding material for common laser core dopants such as Nd3+, Yb3+, Er3+, Tm3+ and Ho3+. All designs are intended to use high NA high power laser diode pumping to obtain high power intrinsically single transverse mode laser output. The obtained data are applicable to any crystalline fiber waveguide design, regardless of fabrication technique. As an example, a CFW with 40 mu m x 40 mu m 4% Tm:YAG core, 5% Yb:YAG inner cladding, and sapphire outer cladding was calculated to be intrinsically single transverse mode, with the minimum inner cladding width of 21.7 mu m determined by the effective index technique [1].