Abstract

Fluoride optical fibers are promising platform for developing photonic system operating in a wide spectral range spanning from visible to mid-infrared, and therefore enabling numerous vital applications. To exploit this potential, fluoride fibres have to be integrate into available infrastructure currently dominated by silica fibers. One of the critical examples is design of effective pumping schemes, where pump lasers come pigtailed with silicon fibers. The melting temperatures of fluoride and silica fibres are drastically different, so it is challenging. to achieve low-loss splice using conventional machines. Furthermore, high water absorption of fluoride fibers catalysed by high power density of the pump lasers make it impossible to use external butt-coupling techniques [1]. Therefore, a question associated with efficient launching of the pumping radiation into active fluoride fibers remains open. The development of mid-infrared fiber laser systems might be improved with a fiber-beam combiner that would allow a uniform distribution of radiation power over the fiber and avoid the major problems associated with radiation input.Two variants of pump combiners have previously been proposed – twisted tapered silica fiber around fluoride one [2] and side-pumping technique[2].

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