Abstract

Mid-infrared lasers operating at wavelengths above ~3 μm are required for many applications. The lasers of a particular interest are those that can provide high average power and high quality of the output beam. A promising approach to realize such lasers is the use of gas-filled hollow-core fibers (HCF), which combine midinfrared light guidance with all the advantages of well-established silica fiber technology. Recent progress in silica HCFs for mid-infrared spectral range has resulted in demonstration of various gas fiber lasers at wavelengths from 2.8 to 4.6 μm [1-5]. However, those lasers use bulk elements to couple the pump into a HCF, thus losing such advantages as compactness and alignment-free operation, which are expected from fiber lasers.

© 2019 IEEE