An all-fiber laser oscillating directly at single TE01 mode through ring-core fibers

Cylindrical vector beams (CVBs) have a wide range of applications owing to their particular polarization characteristics and optical field distributions. For the first time, an azimuthally polarized fiber laser without any polarization controller is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. The scheme is based on a self-designed ring-core fiber and transverse mode filter (TMF). The ring-core fiber can break the degeneracy of LP11 modes and make the TE01 mode propagate stably in the fiber laser. The TMF, which made from the ring-core fiber by depositing a layer of Aluminum on the cladding surface, can effectively suppress the modes other than TE01 mode. The fiber laser can stably operate at TE01 mode with a narrow 30dB linewidth of 0.18nm, which indicates the laser is polarization-maintained. This study opens a new avenue toward the true application of CVBs fiber lasers.