157 W all-fiber high-power picosecond laser

An all-fiber high-power picosecond laser is constructed in a master oscillator power amplifier configuration. The self-constructed fiber laser seed is passively mode locked by a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror. Average output power of 157 W is obtained after three stages of amplification at a fundamental repetition rate of 60 MHz. A short length of ytterbium double-clad fiber with a high doping level is used to suppress nonlinear effects. However, a stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) effect occurs owing to the 78 kW high peak power. A self-made all-fiber repetition rate increasing system is used to octuple the repetition rate and decrease the high peak power. Average output power of 156.6 W is obtained without SRS under the same pump power at a 480 MHz repetition rate with 0.6 nm line width.