High power Er/sup 3-//Yb/sup 3+/-doped fiber laser suitable for medical applications

We present results on high-radiance quasi-single mode, high power, double clad, Er/Yb-doped fiber lasers with suitable output power for laser surgery in the 1550 nm wavelength region (central wavelength at 1545 nm) and also suitable for optical coherence tomography (OCT), microsurgery, and skin resurfacing. We have demonstrated >5W from a co-doped fiber laser and a 5 nm line-width. Note that this is the first step in our fiber laser work for medical applications.