Tapered Yb-doped fiber enabled monolithic high-power linearly polarized single-frequency laser

The all-fiber high-power linearly polarized single-frequency fiber laser based on the polarization-maintaining tapered Yb-doped fiber (T-YDF) is systematically studied. As a result, a 300 W-level stable output with linear polarization and nearly diffraction-limited beam quality is demonstrated. In particular, the overall properties of the transverse mode instability (MI) effect in such a single-frequency laser system are discussed in detail for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, including temporal, frequency, polarization, and spatial domains. Furthermore, the beam pointing error taking the MI effect into account is investigated. Theoretical analyses covering both stimulated Brillouin scattering and the MI effects reveal the great potential of the T-YDF for further power scaling as well.