Power scaling of Tm-doped fibre lasers using an all-fibre composite Michelson-type cavity

We report a 4-W all-fibre Tm-doped fibre laser using a composite cavity with a centre wavelength of 1952.02 nm. The composite cavity consists of two interferometric laser arms that are efficiently combined. Each interferometric laser arm contains a double-clad Tm-doped silica fibre operating in cw mode and pumped by pigtailed laser diodes with a centre wavelength of 793 nm. A high combining efficiency of 93.9 % and a narrow linewidth of 0.1 nm are obtained. The output power of the laser can be scaled straight forwardly by improving the pump power and optimising the component parameters at 2 μm