It is necessary to reduce the power consumption of a plurality of optical amplifiers when there is a difference in the required pumping power between the plurality of optical amplifiers; therefore, an optical amplifying apparatus according to an exemplary aspect of the invention includes a plurality of optical amplifying means for amplifying a plurality of optical signals, each of the plurality of optical amplifying means including a gain medium; a plurality of laser light generating means for generating a plurality of laser beams; at least one optical coupling means for coupling the plurality of laser beams variably in accordance with a coupling factor and outputting a plurality of excitation light beams, each of the plurality of excitation light beams exciting the gain medium; and controlling means for controlling the coupling factor and an output power of each of the plurality of laser light generating means.

A fiber laser system, includes: N fiber laser units that generates respective laser beams, where N≥2; an output combiner that: combines the respective laser beams, and generates output light including, as the respective laser beams, laser beams different from each other in terms of NA power cumulative distribution; and a control unit that sets a power of each of the respective laser beams such that an upper limit NA corresponding to each of not more than (N−1) predetermined power cumulative rate(s) is equal to a specified value for the output light.

A control device for controlling two or more laser diode (LD) modules each supplying pumping light to a variable-output fiber laser, includes: a controller that sets, in accordance with a set value of laser output power of the variable-output fiber laser, a number of LD modules to which a driving current is supplied among the two or more LD modules.

Methods and apparatuses for manipulating and modulating of laser beams. The methods and apparatuses enable activating and deactivating of laser beams, while the laser systems maintain their operating power. Further, a hybrid pump module configured to be coupled to an optical fiber having a core and at least one clad, comprising: at least one focusing lens in optical with the optical fiber; plurality of diode modules, each configured to output a multi-mode beam in optical path with the clad; and at least one core associated module, in optical path with the core, configured to provide selected functions. Further, apparatus and methods configured for frequency doubling of optical radiation.

A filter device includes: an optical fiber that allows light having a predetermined wavelength to propagate in multimode; a first higher-order mode filter that removes at least part of the light in any higher order mode than a predetermined mode in the light in the multimode propagating in the optical fiber; and a fiber Bragg grating that transmits the light having the predetermined wavelength and reflects light having a particular wavelength longer than the predetermined wavelength.

To solve the problem that the power consumption of optical amplifiers is not optimized over the life time of an amplifier, the optical amplifier includes a gain medium for amplifying a plurality of optical channels, the gain medium including a plurality of cores through which the plurality of optical channels to propagate respectively and a cladding area surrounding the plurality of cores, a monitor that monitors the temperature of the optical amplifier and producing a monitoring result, a first light source that emits a first light beam to excite the cladding area, a second light source that emits a plurality of second light beams to excite each of the plurality of cores individually, and a controller that controls the first light source and the second light source based on the produced monitoring result.

An amplification fiber includes a core which is doped with an erbium ion and a cladding which surrounds the core and has a refractive index lower than a refractive index of the core, and a relative refractive index difference Δn.sub.51 between the core and the cladding is not more than a smaller one of values of a relative refractive index difference Δn.sub.1 expressed as a predetermined expression related to a radius a of the core and a relative refractive index difference Δn.sub.2 expressed as a predetermined expression related to the radius a of the core.

Methods and apparatuses for manipulating and modulating of laser beams. The methods and apparatuses enable activating and deactivating of laser beams, while the laser systems maintain their operating power. Further, a hybrid pump module configured to be coupled to an optical fiber having a core and at least one clad, comprising: at least one focusing lens in optical with the optical fiber; plurality of diode modules, each configured to output a multi-mode beam in optical path with the clad; and at least one core associated module, in optical path with the core, configured to provide selected functions. Further, apparatus and methods configured for frequency doubling of optical radiation.

A structure includes: an optical fiber including a large-diameter section that is larger in diameter than a remainder of the optical fiber; and a glass block joined to a first end face of the large-diameter section of the optical fiber. The large-diameter section includes a tapering section that: includes, as part of a surface thereof, a sloping surface sloping at an angle of more than 0° and less than 90° to an optical axis of the optical fiber; and is disposed in a portion other than the first end face.

An optical apparatus includes one or more pump sources situated to provide laser pump light, and a gain fiber optically coupled to the one or more pump sources, the gain fiber including an actively doped core situated to produce an output beam, an inner cladding and outer cladding surrounding the doped core and situated to propagate pump light, and a polymer cladding surrounding the outer cladding and situated to guide a selected portion of the pump light coupled into the inner and outer claddings of the gain fiber. Methods of pumping a fiber sources include generating pump light from one or more pump sources, coupling the pump light into a glass inner cladding and a glass outer cladding of a gain fiber of the fiber source such that a portion of the pump light is guided by a polymer cladding surrounding the glass outer cladding, and generating a single-mode output beam from the gain fiber.