Keywords

Fiber laser, fiber amplifier, photonic crystal fiber, master oscillator power amplifier, thulium

Abstract

Thulium based fiber lasers represent a promising alternative for pulse energy scaling and high peak power generation with ytterbium based systems at 1µm. Advantages of thulium arise from the operation at longer wavelengths and a large gain bandwidth (1.8-2.1µm). Nonlinear effects, such as self phase modulation, stimulated Raman scattering and stimulated Brillouin scattering generally limit peak power scaling in fiber lasers. The longer wavelength of thulium fiber lasers and large mode field areas can significantly increase the nonlinear thresholds. Compared to 1µm systems, thulium fiber lasers enable single mode guidance for two times larger mode field diameter in step index fibers. Similar behavior is expected for index guiding thulium doped photonic crystal fibers. In this work a novel thulium doped rod type photonic crystal fiber design with large mode field diameter ( > 50µm) was first characterized in CW-lasing configuration and then utilized as final amplifier in a two stage master oscillator power amplifier. The system generated MW-level peak power at 6.5ns pulse duration and 1kHz repetition rate. This world record performance exemplifies the potential of thulium fiber lasers to supersede ytterbium based systems for very high peak power generation in the future. As part of this work a computer model for the transient simulation of pulsed amplification in thulium based fiber lasers was developed. The simulations are in good agreement with the experimental results. The computer model can be used for efficient optimization of future thulium based fiber amplifier designs.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2013

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Richardson, Martin

Degree

Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)

College

College of Optics and Photonics

Department

Optics and Photonics

Degree Program

Optics; International

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0004845

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0004845

Language

English

Release Date

8-15-2018

Length of Campus-only Access

5 years

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Optics and Photonics, Optics and Photonics -- Dissertations, Academic

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