3 × 1 fiber signal combiner with high beam quality Gaussian-like beam for a 10kW-level fiber laser.

ABSTRACT

We present the design and fabrication of a 3 × 1 signal combiner with high beam quality based on supermode theory. For improving beam quality, the fiber with core diameter of 34 µm and numerical aperture of 0.11 is first chosen as the output fiber. An 8.89 kW output laser with a power transmission efficiency of 97.2% and a low temperature rise coefficient of 3.5 °C/ kW at >8 kW is obtained when the combiner launched by three Yb-doped fiber lasers. In addition, the energy density distribution of the output beam is Gaussian-like and M2 factor is 2.32, which is the best beam quality compared with the presented signal combiners for high power laser to the best of our knowledge.