Characterization of tunable low power Yb-doped fiber CW oscillators

A continuous-wave fiber laser characterization based on a Findlay-Clay analysis is proposed. With this procedure, commonly used for solid-state lasers, information about saturation power and reabsorption loss is obtained. The knowledge of these parameters is commonly sufficient for a number of fiber oscillator design issues, but it also allows estimating values for fabrication dependent parameters, such as absorption and emission cross-sections, doping concentrations and dopant effective diffusion areas. As an application example, a single-mode low-power oscillator employing standard and well-known fiber components has been studied, providing values in good agreement with previously reported spectroscopical measurements. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.