Polarization-maintaining, rod-type, ytterbium-doped, multi-core fiber for high power operation

It has been previously observed that each core in a multi-core fiber has its own birefringence properties. Therefore, obtaining a laser output with a well-defined polarization pattern from a multi-core fiber is challenging. In this work, we explain the origin of this core-dependent birefringence and present a polarization-maintaining, 35-core fiber design that is tested in an oscillator setup, delivering over 100W of power with a polarization contrast ratio close to 10dB. This is a significant improvement with respect to a comparable non-polarization-maintaining multi-core fiber.