Pump and signal combiner for bi-directional pumping of all-fiber lasers and amplifiers

We developed an all-fiber component with a signal feedthrough capable of combining up to 6 fiber-coupled multi-mode pump sources to a maximum pump power of 400 W at efficiencies in the range of 89 to 95%, providing the possibility of transmitting a high power signal in forward and in reverse direction. Hence, the fiber combiner can be implemented in almost any fiber laser or amplifier architecture. The complete optical design of the combiner was developed based on ray tracing simulations and confirmed by experimental results.