A low-numerical-aperture (NA) concept enables large-mode-area fiber with better single-mode operation ability, which is beneficial for transverse mode instability and nonlinear effects suppression. In this contribution, we reported a high-power fiber amplifier based on a piece of self-developed large-mode-area low-NA fiber with a core NA of 0.049 and a core/inner cladding diameter of 25/400 µm. The influence of the pump wavelength and fiber length on the power scaling potential of the fiber amplifier is systematically investigated. As a result, an output of 4.80 kW and a beam quality factor of ∼1.33 were finally obtained, which is the highest output power ever reported in a fiber amplifier exploiting the low-NA fiber. The results reveal that low-NA fibers have superiority in power scaling and beam quality maintenance at high power levels.

锥形光纤能够有效兼顾非线性效应抑制和模式控制，具备实现高功率、高光束质量光纤激光的潜力。近期国防科技大学研制了锥形掺镱光纤，采用1018 nm光纤激光后向级联泵浦实现了20.2 kW 激光输出，光束质量β因子平均值优于2，拉曼抑制比为33 dB。研究结果展示了锥形光纤在实现万瓦级高光束质量激光方面的优势。

量子亏损对高功率光纤激光器内的废热产生和光光转换效率具有重要影响，光纤激光器输出功率的提升过程可以视为不断与量子亏损作斗争的过程。文中梳理了近年来1 μm波段低量子亏损光纤激光的重要进展，重点介绍了稀土掺杂增益和拉曼增益两种体制的光纤激光器在实现低量子亏损输出方面的相关工作。在稀土掺杂光纤激光器中，采用级联泵浦、多组分掺杂、强泵浦等技术可降低激光器的量子亏损，其中量子亏损≤1%的掺镱光纤激光器已实现400 mW功率输出。在拉曼光纤激光器中，通过采用特殊掺杂、泵浦光谱调控、增益竞争抑制等技术，量子亏损≤1%的拉曼光纤激光器已实现百瓦级功率输出，并成功验证包层泵浦方案的可行性，表明其在实现高功率低量子亏损输出方面具有重要潜力。