Quantum mechanics

Beam (structure)

Materials science

M squared

Power (physics)

Amplifier

Picosecond

Laser

Physics

Laser beams

Optics

Laser beam quality

CMOS

Fiber laser

Optoelectronics

Optics Letters

We report the generation of high average output power, high peak power, and high pulse energy radially polarized picosecond pulses from a compact gain-switched laser-diode-seeded Yb-doped fiber master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) system. A q-plate was employed as a mode converter prior to the final power amplifier to efficiently convert the linearly polarized Gaussian-shaped beam into a donut-shaped radially polarized beam. The desired vector beam was efficiently amplified yielding ∼110 ps pulses with a maximum output pulse energy of ∼30.7 μJ and a peak power of ∼280 kW at a repetition rate of 1.367 MHz. The average power was scaled up to 106 W by increasing the repetition rate to 5.468 MHz.

106 W, picosecond Yb-doped fiber MOPA system with a radially polarized output beam