Higher-order Poincaré sphere (HOPS) beams with spatially variable polarization and phase distributions are opening up a host of unique applications in areas ranging from optical communication to microscopy. However, the flexible generation of these beams with high peak power from compact laser systems remains a challenge. Here, we demonstrate the controlled generation of HOPS beams based on coherent beam combination from an Yb-doped multicore fiber (MCF) amplifier. Using a spatial light modulator to adaptively adjust the wavefront and polarization of the signals seeded into the individual cores of the MCF various structured beams (including cylindrical vector beams and first- and second-order vortex beams) were generated with peak powers up to 14 kW for ∼92ps pulses.

Optical angular momentum (OAM)-based structured light beams provide an additional degree of freedom for practical applications ranging from optical communication to laser-based material processing. Many techniques exist for generating such beams within laser sources and these primarily rely upon the use of specially designed optical components that limit laser power scaling and ready tunability of the topological charge and polarization of the output OAM beams. Here we show that some of these limitations can be overcome by employing a computer controlled reflective phase-only spatial light modulator to adaptively tailor the input (and subsequent output) beam wavefront and polarization in a few-mode fiber amplifier. In this way modal-coupling-induced beam distortion within the fiber amplifier can be mitigated and we are able to generate at will any desired supported spatial mode guided in the fiber, including conventional linearly polarized (LP) modes, scalar OAM modes, and cylindrical vector modes, at average powers >10W and with a peak power of >11kW. Our results pave the way to the realization of practical high-power structured laser sources with tunable chirality and polarization.

An out-of-plane silicon grating coupler capable of mode-order conversion at the chip–fiber interface is designed and fabricated. Optimization of the structure is performed through finite-difference time-domain simulations, and the final device is characterized through far-field profile and transmission measurements. A coupling loss of 3.1 dB to a commercial two-mode fiber is measured for a single TE0→LP11 mode conversion grating, which includes a conversion penalty of 1.3 dB. Far-field patterns of the excited LP11 mode profile are also reported.