Thermomechanical properties of high-power and high-energy Yb-doped silica fiber lasers

The thermomechanical properties of both single-core and multicore Yb-doped fiber lasers for both continuous wave and Q-switched operations are studied using finite element method. It was found that the maximum stress of multicore fiber lasers is 10%-20% lower than that of single-core fiber lasers with the same effective core and cladding areas at the same operating power level. For Q-switched operation, the stress in a multicore fiber laser relaxes much faster than that in a single-core fiber laser, and the peak stress is found to be proportional to the pulse energy.