Optical reliability of cladding pump fiber for high power communication networks

High power lasers and amplifiers for communication networks based on cladding pump fiber operate at unprecedented power levels. The high power and unique structure of cladding pump fiber present new challenges to the optical reliability of lasers and amplifiers based on these novel fibers. In this paper we present results on the reliability of cladding pump fiber under high power both in the multimode pump waveguide and in the rare earth doped core.