Beam Quality and Power Scalability of Various Multicore Fiber Lasers

Beam quality and power scalability analyses for various multicore fiber lasers (MFL) are presented. In-phase complex amplitude and corresponding far-field intensity distribution of each type of MFL is calculated using the finite-difference time-domain method. It is revealed that the hexagonal ring-type MFL has the best performance in power handling and maintaining beam quality. Further calculation indicates that power encircled in the diffraction-bucket of L-core MFL scales with no more than 0.4L, which challenges the practical worthiness of fielding MFL with a large number of cores.