Research on absorption test methods of Yb-doped double cladding fiber

Absorption coefficient is a very useful feature for active fiber. In fiber laser system, the length of active fiber is chosen according to absorption coefficient. And the length of fiber can directly influence the feature of fiber laser. Therefore, how to obtain an accurate absorption coefficient is very important. Because fiber exists re-emission in typical absorption band pumped by power. It is difficult to accurately measure absorption coefficient. The absorption coefficients of Yb-doped double cladding fiber at 975 nm measured by several methods were compared. In conclusion, for the fibers with same length pumped by white light, the absorption coefficient is the highest when cutback only once. Meanwhile, when fibers with different length were measured by the same method, the absorption coefficient is inversely proportional to optical fiber length.