Yb3+:YAG silica fiber laser.

We demonstrate a compact, room-temperature, cw Yb(3+):Y(3)Al(5)O(12) silica (Yb(3+):YAG silica) fiber laser grown by the codrawing laser-heated pedestal growth technique. A slope efficiency of 76.3% was achieved from a 7 mm Yb(3+):YAG silica fiber, corresponding to an extracted power of nearly 1 W/cm. A laser side-mode suppression ratio of 70 dB was obtained with a 3 dB linewidth of 0.15 nm. Additionally, the propagation loss and emission cross section were determined by analyzing the lasing thresholds and slope efficiencies.