Beam-by-beam Kerr clean-up in multimode optical fibres – INVITED

We propose and demonstrate the concept of beam-by-beam cleaning in multimode optical fibres, i.e., the increase of the spatial quality of an intense laser beam, induced by a relatively weak, quasi singlemode seed beam. This effect, which relies on the Kerr nonlinearity of the fibre, is quite efficient: a seed beam is capable of providing a bell-shape to a ten times more powerful beam. Our results pave the way for the development of a new class of all-optical switching devices for intense laser beams.