250 W clad pumped Raman all-fiber laser with brightness enhancement

We report a strictly all-fiber clad pumped Raman fiber laser with a CW power of 250 W. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest power Raman fiber laser demonstrated in any configuration allowing brightness enhancement. In addition, this is the first report of a Raman clad pumped all-fiber laser. The brightness of the pump source was enhanced by a factor of ∼3.8. This result was achieved by the design of a novel triple-clad fiber, with tight pump power inner confining clad that both maximized the Raman gain and inhibited the second Stokes radiation. We discuss power-increase effects on the beam quality, efficiency, and brightness enhancement.