Abstract

We report on the writing of fundamental-order fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) at 1072 nm in non-photosensitive ytterbium-doped silica fibers using femtosecond pulses at 400 nm and a phase-mask. A splice-free ytterbium fiber laser with an output power of 175W was demonstrated based on a pair of such FBGs inscribed directly at both ends of the active fiber. This report clearly demonstrates that FBGs written with a femtosecond beam at 400 nm can withstand the operation of high power fiber lasers.

© 2010 Optical Society of America