There is an important need for compact, light weight, short pulse laser sources for LIDAR applications. Recently, over 100 Watts of output power has been demonstrated from a glass fiber laser. Two advances have made this possible. These are the availability of high power diode lasers for pumping and the development of double cladding of the fibers. For several reasons it is possible to achieve significant improvements in these results by using single crystal fibers rather than glass fibers. Using the Laser-Heated Pedestal-Growth (LHPG) technique to grow single crystal fibers of Yb:YAG, we are proposing to develop a diode-pumped, double-clad fiber laser of Yb:YAG emitting at 1.03 microns and Q-switched using a new passive material.
