Degradation-resistant lasing at 980 nm in a Yb/Ce/Al-doped silica fiber

In this work we measure how photodarkening affects the optical efficiency for three different Yb/Al-doped silica fibers operating at 980 nm, one of which is codoped with cerium. A volume Bragg grating is used for linewidth control and added rejection of amplified spontaneous emission. Several hours of degradation-resistant operation is obtained with the Ce-codoped fiber, while for the Yb/Al doped fibers a large drop in efficiency is observed within the first hour of operation. Our results show that Yb/Ce/Al-doped fibers could be excellent candidates for high-power 980 nm fiber laser sources.