Side-pumped short rectangular Nd-doped phosphate glass fiber lasers

Watt-level short fiber lasers side-pumped through fiber-to-waveguide couplers are demonstrated. The fiber lasers are fabricated from Nd-doped phosphate glass with large numerical aperture of 0.2 and rectangular cross section of 1.5 × 0.5 (mm). Single transverse mode output is achieved by the gain-guiding effect. Average power of 1 W is generated from a 4.0-cm-long fiber laser with a slope efficiency of 10%.