Power scaling of high-efficiency 1.5 μm cascaded Raman fiber lasers

High-power fiber lasers operating at the 1.5 mu m wavelength region have attractive features, such as eye safety and atmospheric transparency, and cascaded Raman fiber lasers offer a convenient method to obtain high-power sources at these wavelengths. A limitation to power scaling, however, has been the lower conversion efficiency of these lasers. We recently introduced a high-efficiency architecture for high-power cascaded Raman fiber lasers applicable for 1.5 mu m fiber lasers. Here we demonstrate further power scaling using this new architecture. Using numerical simulations, we identify the ideal operating conditions for the new architecture. We demonstrate a high-efficiency 1480 nm cascaded Raman fiber laser with an output power of 301 W, comparable to record power levels achieved with rare-earth-doped fiber lasers in the 1.5 mu m wavelength region. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America