High-power operation of silica-based Raman fiber amplifier at 2147 nm.

We demonstrated a 2147 nm silica-based Raman fiber amplifier with output power of 14.3 W directly pumped with a 1963 nm CW thulium-doped all-fiber MOPA. The 1963 nm thulium-doped all-fiber MOPA is seeded with a 2147 nm thulium-doped all-fiber laser at the same time. The Raman Stokes power shift from 1963 nm to 2147 nm is accomplished in a piece of 50 m silica-based highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF). The conversion efficiency was 38.5% from 1963 nm to 2147 nm in the HNLF. The output power achieved was only currently limited by available 1963 nm input power and the architecture has significant scaling potential. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest power operation of a Raman fiber amplifier at >2 µm wavelength region.