Optical Damage Limits to Pulse Energy From Fibers

The irradiances or fluences encountered in pulsed fiber lasers and amplifiers are sometimes high enough to destroy the fiber. The ultimate limit is set by the intrinsic damage threshold irradiance of doped silica. Other nonlinear processes such as self-focusing and stimulated Brillouin scattering are also important. We present here the results of our measurements of the damage threshold, and of our analysis of how self-focusing and Brillouin scattering influence the power limit.