Side-pumped fiber laser

A neodymium-doped side-pumped double-clad fiber laser operating at 1.06 µm is described. We report here, what is, to our knowledge, the first exclusively repetitive side-pumping scheme with two monomode laser diodes. Side-pumping has been realized by prism-fiber couplers. A pump-light-loss analysis at the pump positions has been performed. An output power of 13.5 mW is obtained with both diode lasers. The highest slope efficiency of 66% with respect to absorbed pump power at 809 nm is achieved when pumping with only one diode.