Title

Thulium Fiber Laser And Application Development

Keywords

fiber laser; nonlinear conversion; thulium

Abstract

Within the past 10 years, thulium (Tm)-doped fiber lasers have emerged as a flexible platform offering high average power as well as high peak power. Many of the benefits and limitations of Tm:fiber lasers are similar to those for ytterbium (Yb)-doped fiber lasers, however the ∼2 μm emission wavelength posses unique challenges in terms of laser development as well as several benefits for applications. In this presentation, we will review the progress of laser development in CW, nanosecond, picosecond, and femtosecond regimes. As a review of our efforts in the development of power amplifiers, we will compare large mode area (LMA) stepindex and photonic crystal fiber (PCF) architectures. In our research, we have found Tm-doped step index LMA fibers to offer relatively high efficiency and average powers at the expense of fundamental mode quality. By comparison, Tm-doped PCFs provide the largest mode area and quasi diffraction-limited beam quality however they are approximately half as efficient as step-index fibers. In terms of defense related applications, the most prominent use of Tm:fiber lasers is to pump nonlinear conversion to the mid-IR such as supercontinuum generation and optical parametric oscillators/amplifiers (OPO/A). We have recently demonstrated Tm:fiber pumped OPOs which generate ∼28 kW peak power in the mid-IR. In addition, we will show that Tm:fiber lasers also offer interesting capabilities in the processing of semiconductors. © 2014 SPIE.

Publication Date

1-1-2014

Publication Title

Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering

Volume

9081

Number of Pages

-

Document Type

Article; Proceedings Paper

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2053297

Socpus ID

84904738035 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84904738035

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