Chirally coupled core (3C) optical fibers allow large-mode areas, near-diffraction-limited beam quality, and effectively zero modal pointing, owing to designed-in higher-order-mode (HOM) suppression. High-precision laser materials processing applications typically require sub-nanosecond pulses with high peak and average powers. Furthermore, those high peak powers must be applied in small focal spots with extreme consistency; consequently, near-diffraction-limited beam quality is crucial. This beam quality is not simply captured by the ubiquitous M squared (M~2) parameter, but also includes quantification of beam circularity through the focal range, beam pointing over time, and power stability.
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