Combined supercontinuum source with >200 W power using a 3 × 1 broadband fiber power combiner

Opt Lett. 2015 Aug 15;40(16):3810-3. doi: 10.1364/OL.40.003810.

Abstract

We report an incoherently combined near-infrared supercontinuum (SC) source with >200 W output power using a 3×1 broadband fiber power combiner. A broadband fiber power combiner is designed and theoretically investigated. The power transmission efficiencies of light at different wavelengths of the combiner are calculated, and the combiner is verified to be capable of combining broadband sources efficiently. Then a combiner is fabricated. Three ∼70 W near-infrared SC sources are constructed and then, using the combiner, a >200 W near-infrared SC source is obtained. Conclusively, using incoherently combining method we can obtain a high-power SC source, and the thermo-management can be realized easily. We believe that this is a suitable method to obtain a higher-power SC source.