Analysis of the power scaling of resonantly pumped Tm-doped silica fiber lasers

The physical limit for the maximum extractable power of Tm-doped silica fiber lasers in resonantly-pumped configuration is analyzed. The effect of thermal fracture, thermal lens, melting of the core, optical damage, finite pump brightness and the nonlinear effects (stimulated Brillouin scattering or stimulated Raman scattering) are taken into consideration. According to the numerical simulation, a maximum extractable power of 56.6 kW and 2.11 kW could be achieved by theTm-doped fiber sources in resonantly-pumped configuration for the broad bandwidth and single-frequency case, respectively. Strictly single-mode of these cases are also taken into consideration, and the maximum extractable powers are 12 kW and 1.25 kW. The physical limit mechanism derived by this method proves that the Tm-doped fiber sources in resonantly-pumped regime has a significant advantage over that in diode directly-pumped regime, thus having practical significance for increasing the output power.