Gain-guided leaky-waveguide laser amplifiers: analytical methods and recent progress on experiments

Leaky-waveguide laser amplifiers can sometimes have significant advantages for single-transverse-mode propagation in high-power waveguide laser systems. Most recent studies of such systems have either not included gain saturation, or they have assumed homogeneously broadened gain media. However, some of the most promising media for such amplifiers are inhomogeneously broadened. Results reported here include detailed numerical mode solutions for saturated inhomogeneous broadening, as well as useful analytical methods and approximations for both homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadening.

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