Patent ID: 7881347

Claim:
A gain guided hybrid laser having a multimode laser resonator with hybrid gain guiding in the multimode laser resonator comprising: a large core multimode fiber as a gain medium for the hybrid laser; a pump source at a first end of the multimode fiber to pump light into a cavity of the multimode fiber laser; a gain guiding element coupled with a second end of the multimode fiber to induce loss on high order modes to allow only one single mode to transmit through the gain guiding element without loss, the gain guiding element selected from a group consisting of an anti guided fiber and plural serially coupled gain guiding elements along the length of the fiber laser to add losses on the high order modes, each pumped by a corresponding pump source; a main pumping source for pumping the gain guiding element to produce a gain guided laser, wherein the gain guiding provides a single mode output; and an output coupler for coupling a single mode output.