Month: September 2025

Fiber Laser Systems for Use in Surgical Applications

Overview of Fiber Laser Systems

Low-power fiber laser systems have demonstrated excellent results in a variety of applications. In the medical field, they lead to improved patient outcomes and provide convenient, user-friendly tools for healthcare professionals. In science, they enable significant innovations and developments. For example, in research, they are used to analyze processes such as chemical reactions.

Fiber Laser System Characteristics

Today’s advanced fiber lasers deliver impressive performance while maintaining compact size and ease of use. As a result, they are in demand across many applications, such as aerospace and research. Year after year, fiber laser systems continue to improve and evolve.

Advantages of Laser Modules

The laser modules use a silica glass fiber optic cable as the light guide. Due to its small size and linear structure, the laser beam is more accurate. While providing high beam quality, fiber lasers offer advantages in robustness and safety. Laser modules occupy little space, are highly efficient, and have low maintenance and operating costs.

Fiber Laser System Applications

Different types of fiber lasers have found various applications. In particular, they are widely used in medicine, from diagnostics to cutting and non-invasive procedures.

Key Medical Areas

Fiber laser systems are used in the following areas:

Urology; Brain tissue treatment; Arthroscopy; Bone and cutaneous surgery; Ophthalmology; Photodynamic therapy (PDT); Biomedical sensing – mid-infrared spectroscopy; Dentistry; Lithotripsy, and more.

In surgical applications, doctors use the laser beam as a scalpel. Typically, fiber lasers are employed for minimally invasive surgery and with mini implants. Each new generation of laser products provides smaller and thinner tools. Fiber laser technology is a promising solution for the future.

Brain Tissue Treatment by Fiber Laser Systems

Fiber laser systems are used in neurological surgeries designed to treat neurological pathologies and oncology. The critical aspect of these surgeries is the specialized instruments capable of cutting tissue while providing optimal operating conditions for both patients and medical staff. For precise, bloodless surgery with minimal thermal damage, fiber lasers have proven effective. They provide surgeons with instruments for precise tissue removal. Laser modules can be integrated into flexible cutting tools, allowing access to hard-to-reach brain areas.

Neurological Cancer Surgery

Neurological cancer surgery requires precise technology capable of removing tumor cells and tissue without damaging nearby healthy structures. This is complicated by the location of neurological cancers, which may adhere to bone structures and cause bleeding if blood vessels are damaged, making visibility difficult for the surgeon. Therefore, a range of instruments is used in the operating room to dissect, fragment, and resect tissue effectively.

Application of Fiber Lasers in Arthroscopy

Every year, more surgeons adopt fiber lasers. Previously, fiber lasers were less compact and less affordable. As they have become easier to use and less invasive, they are now available for a wider range of surgical procedures. Fiber lasers have revolutionized microsurgery, minimizing damage to surrounding tissue.

Arthroscopic Surgery Procedure

Arthroscopic surgery can use fiber lasers. Arthroscopy is a medical procedure for diagnosing and treating joint problems. Through a small incision, a narrow tube is inserted, connected to a fiber-optic video camera. A high-resolution monitor displays all details inside the joint.

In arthroscopy, laser module devices have improved the precision of cutting and ablation while providing access to hard-to-reach areas.

Overall, fiber laser systems in medicine have become multifunctional instruments for soft-tissue surgeries. Their ability to cut and coagulate simultaneously makes them indispensable in microsurgery.

Diverse Applications of Fiber Lasers

Overview of Fiber Laser Applications

Over the past decades, fiber lasers have gained popularity across different industries due to their qualities and benefits. Depending on their capabilities, they are applied in industrial sectors as marking or cutting instruments, in medicine, and in science as tools for extremely precise procedures and processes. They have become universal machines developed for the most demanding applications. Here are some examples.

Fiber Lasers for Cytometry

Fiber lasers provide the basis for advanced cytometry instruments. Their accuracy and efficiency are the driving force behind the development of flow cytometry for particulate matter analysis.

Flow Cytometry Explained

Flow cytometry is a laser-based technology for the measurement, identification, and counting of particles or cells.

Using fiber lasers, researchers can perform high-resolution measurements and detailed analyses of particle size, shape, and composition. Fiber laser systems are used to detect any disturbances in the cells.

Flow cytometry uses fiber laser systems with varying wavelengths as light sources. These lasers illuminate cells suspended in a liquid stream. This illumination allows scientists to isolate biomarkers for analysis, identify abnormal cells, and count or sort cells based on specific characteristics. The versatility and accuracy of fiber lasers contribute to advances in particle characterization, enabling a deeper understanding of complex particle systems in scientific and industrial applications.

Fiber lasers support the continuous development of flow cytometry to meet the analytical requirements of scientific and medical research.

Fiber Laser Systems for Holography

Fiber lasers have revolutionized holography by providing a stable and coherent light source for creating high-quality holograms.

Holography Technology

Holography is a method of recording information based on the interference of waves, enabling the creation of three-dimensional images using a fiber laser light source. The precise quality of the laser beam and its ability to deliver high power in a compact form make fiber lasers an ideal choice for holographic applications. Their reliability and versatility have contributed significantly to the advancement of holography technology, opening new possibilities in entertainment, security, scientific visualization, and medical imaging.

Fiber lasers enable the creation of intricate and detailed holographic images, advancing holographic displays, security features, and 3D imaging. They have also facilitated the development of cutting-edge holographic technologies for applications in art, virtual reality, and data storage, expanding their impact across multiple industries.

Fiber Lasers for Optical Measurements

Optical metrology measures physical properties in a non-contact manner. One of its most widely used tools in the optical industry is interferometry.

Advantages in Optical Metrology

Interferometry is a measurement technique based on wave interference. It is a long-established technology improved by modern electronics and software. It has been applied in multiple scientific fields, including space exploration and environmental measurements.

The advantages of fiber lasers have helped this technology reach a new level in astronomy, engineering, and other fields.

Key advantages include:

Easy to Install and Use

Optical measurement systems are easier to set up than other technologies, which is particularly useful when workpieces change frequently. Using optical technologies simplifies and accelerates installation and operation.

Measurement Accuracy

Another significant advantage is high accuracy, measurable down to the nanometer range. Modern high-quality fiber lasers provide coherent and stable light, enabling precise dimensional measurements in interferometric setups.

Non-Contact Process

In addition to accuracy, fiber lasers enable non-contact measurements without damaging objects. This is particularly important for fragile or delicate samples, allowing specialists to obtain measurements in seconds and receive real-time analysis.

Fiber lasers are versatile tools with broad applications across many fields. Their flexibility and performance make them an essential component in advanced scientific processes.

Novel highest efficiency and power fiber laser: the advanced technology

History and Applications of Fiber Lasers

The first fiber laser was demonstrated over 50 years ago by E. Snitzer in a Neodymium doped fiber. Today, fiber lasers find many applications in different spheres f.e medical diagnostics, laser material processing, imaging, metrology, and scientific research. It is interesting to note how many advantages have fiber optics laser technology.

Advantages of Fiber Laser Technology

The fiber laser is the highest efficiency and power laser that can be used in different spheres. Fiber lasers are compact and rugged, don’t go out of alignment, and easily spend thermal energy.

Structure of Fiber Lasers

The fiber laser’s waveguides are unique. The inner active core is doped with a rare earth – like ytterbium, erbium, thulium and defines oscillation wavelength. It is surrounded by Fiber Bragg Gratings, which confines the pump light and couples it into the active core.

High Beam Quality and Precision

Ultra-short pulse lasers can shape very precise microstructures and fabricate novel laser sources for industry. Fiber lasers support high beam quality at all the entire power range. In most common laser solutions, the beam quality is sensitive to output power. In fiber lasers, the output beam is virtually non-divergent over a wide power range. So, the beam can be concentrated to achieve high levels of precision, increased power densities and longer distances over which processing can be accomplished.

Efficiency and Design Benefits

Usage of a fiber as a laser active medium allows prolonging interaction distance, which works well for diode-pumping. This geometry leads to high photon conversion efficiency, as well as a rugged and compact design. When novel fiber sources are joined together, there are no discrete optics to adjust or to get out of alignment.

Adaptability and Variations of Fiber Lasers

The highest efficiency laser is highly adaptable. It can be adjusted to do anything from welding heavy sheets of metal to producing femtosecond pulses. Many variations exist on the fiber-laser theme. Fiber amplifiers provide single-pass amplification; they’re used in telecommunications because they can intensify many wavelengths in the meantime. Another example is fiber-amplified spontaneous-emission sources, in which the induced emission is suppressed. The Raman fiber laser is the another pattern, which is based on Raman gain that essentially Raman-shifts the wavelength. This is an application that’s not be practiced on a wide scale, but it certainly finds an application in research.
The market for the highest efficiency lasers is rapidly increased. Also seeing the substitution of non-fiber lasers with fiber lasers. The area of application fiber lasers now is an integral part of many photonic applications including biomedicine, material processing, astronomy and fundamental research. Nowadays, continuous wave fiber lasers with output powers above 1 kW become available. Fiber laser development still continues to be an active research field.

Concept of Supersymmetry in Fiber Laser Technology

Development Challenges of Microlasers

Ring microlasers are potential light sources for photonic applications, but several challenges remain. For example, connecting multiple fiber lasers into a set may produce unwanted additional modes. Modern fiber laser technology enables the creation of chip-sized single-mode lasers.

Developing a single-mode chip-sized laser requires making fiber lasers stronger, smaller, and more stable. A research team from the USA recently designed two-dimensional arrays of microlasers with single-mode stability, achieving higher power density than previously reported.

Coherence and Stability Requirements

The fiber lasers must be coherent and stable to preserve data processed by photonic devices. Single-mode lasers provide optimal coherence, but their combined output is weaker than that of multimode lasers. To produce high-power multimode output, multiple single-mode lasers must be combined; however, mode competition reduces the coherence of the fiber laser array.

Supersymmetry in Fiber Laser Arrays

Achieving single-mode operation is critical because the brightness of a fiber laser array increases with the number of lasers when they operate synchronously in a single supermode. Researchers concluded that single-mode operation can be realized by introducing a “superpartner” based on the concept of supersymmetry.

Two-Dimensional Microlaser Arrays

According to the research team, previous studies using the superpartner fiber laser array principle were limited to one dimension. The current system demonstrates a two-dimensional array with five rows and five columns of microlasers. The team predicts that higher power scaling can be achieved using the same principle for larger arrays.

Applications of Single-Mode Lasers

This approach can also be applied to vortex lasers, which allow precise control of the laser beam and its spiral motion. Controlling laser beams in this way may enable encoding fiber laser systems at higher densities.

Single-mode lasers have a wide range of applications, from optical sensing to optical communications. This research contributes to the development of more efficient laser modules.

High-technology laser systems: gas laser holography methods in medicine

Applications of Holography in Ophthalmology

Holography methods require high-technology laser systems and, just like interpherometery, are often used in ophthalmology. Certain researches have high potential in this sphere: three-dimension image of the eye and its parts, studying optical eye features and measuring internal eye structures with the high resolution.

Imaging Internal Eye Structures

Most of the research today is about creating an image of the internal volume of the eye, and developing an optical scheme to make a wide angle holographic photo. One of the experiments used laser with 632 nm and 589 nm to create a hologram of an eye of animal. Cross-polarization was used to avoid parasite and interfering beams from mirror reflections of an eye and a lens. The images of the blood vessels have been made, however, the main purpose of the holography – three-dimensional image of the objects – hasn’t been achieved. It happened because the resolution wasn’t high enough.

High-technology Laser Systems for Fundus Imaging

High-technology laser system with double-beam is used to obtain the fundus hologram, the regular fundus camera has its xenon light source replaced with an argon gas laser, and its emission is used to illuminate the eye fundus and create a bearing beam. The studies show that the gas laser holography methods have relatively low resolution and low contract images, which can be explained by the speckle pattern that affects the general image.

Advantages and Methods of Holography

In general, holography with gas laser is useful to localize intraocular foreign body and to study different processes such as tumors, edemas, amotio, etc. Using single-pass holographic registration allows achieving a better quality of three-dimension images, fluorangiography is a primary method, a luminescence colourant is inserted in blood, and it helps to register the images of fundus.
There is no doubt that holography method has a great potential in the area of biomedical diagnostics, in particular, in ophthalmology, however, it presents certain challenges that prevent animal experiments from showing excellent results. Further optimization of high-technology laser systems parameters need to be done.

High-performing laser: Single-frequency laser system for optical tweezers

Principles of Optical Tweezers

The principle of the optical tweezers is based on the fact that light beam has a pulse and when it its direction is changing it creates power.

Concept of Pulse in Mechanics

The concept of a pulse comes from mechanics, where the body mass multiplied to its speed stand for the pulse. Speed is a vector that describes the magnitude and the direction. Hence, object motion happens under the influence of power, and the direction of the speed is connected to the shift of the power direction.

Light Interaction with Particles

When a photon is projected on a non-transparent surface, then the pulse is just the light pressuring on this surface. However, when pointing the high-performing laser on the transparent particle, the light beam is diffracted – the direction of the light vector and as a result of the photons is changing. By analogy with the mechanics it is fair to say that the power shift will affect the particle in a way that it will move towards the highest insensitivity of the laser beam.

Gaussian Beam Trapping

Insensitivity of the high-performing laser beam is the highest at the core and fades on the edges. The law of the insensitivity shift corresponds to the Gaussian distribution. That is why the particle stays at the core of the beam, and when the beam is focused it is “sucked in” by the beam and becomes “trapped”. This kind of three-dimension trap needs power of several mV.

Manipulating Particles with Optical Tweezers

By moving the focus it is possible to move the particles, creating different structures with them. Using the optical tweezers the scientists can trap a chromosome and then cut it for further research. Single-frequency laser system with 1064 nm wavelength is a good solution for trapping, and for cutting a green laser with 532 nm wavelength. Optical tweezers is the best tool for these kinds of manipulations; however, it has certain weaknesses.
First of all, the more the beam is focused the faster it radiates. This means that the power holding the particle fades very fast the further away it is from the trapping zone, and at the distance of several dozens of microns from the focus the power is insufficient to trap it again. Single beam trap is only useful to trap a single particle located in the focus area.
Second of all, laser beam changes after it reaches the object because of the diffraction, reflection or absorption. This also limits the distance of optical tweezers.
The more the beam radiates the harder it is to focus the optical system, and it is impossible to obtain the perfect parallel beam because of the diffraction. However, there is a type of light beams that are free from diffraction, they are called Bessel’s beams.
Regular Gauss beams are converted into Bessel beams with so called axion conical lens that focuses the High power single-frequency laser beam not into a dot, but into a line. Optical tweezers that use Bessel’s beam can trap particles located on a distance of 3 mm from each other. Single-frequency laser system with 1064 nm wavelength was used.
Optical tweezers allow measuring different mechanical properties of the DNA molecules. It is currently used to transplant genes into cells, and also for invitro fertilization.

Holmium Advanced Laser Systems – a Better Choice for Q-switched Operations than Thulium Fiber Laser

Performance of Rare-Earth Ions

Trivalent rare earth ions Tm3+ and Ho3+ show extraordinary results for the high power continuous wave and pulsed laser operation in 2 µ wavelength range. Thulium fiber laser is, in general, better for CW operations, when holmium laser is preferred for pulsed and q-switched lasers operations because of its high gain. However, holmium can be excited around 1.9 µ for an efficient operation at 2.1 µ, or it needs to exploit some energy transfer from thulium or ytterbium.

Evolution of Holmium Laser Products

Before recently, holmium laser products were created as co-doped systems, because there weren’t any laser diodes that could provide wavelength ranges for pumping Ho3+ ions. Mostly, thulium co-doping was used, because its ions cross relaxation process properties. Currently, the most potential option to reach the highest output powers is in-band pumping of Ho:YAG crystals. It is possible in 1.9 µ wavelength range.

Industrial and LIDAR Applications

There are a lot of different applications that need short laser pulses with high pulse energies or high CW powers at the 2.1 µ wavelength, which makes holmium lasers in high demand on the market. Mainly, holmium advanced laser systems are created using thulium crystals or fiber lasers for pumping. Moreover, 2.1 µ wavelength is eye safe, because the emission doesn’t reach the retina, which makes it not dangerous for eyes. This wavelength range makes holmium laser in demand for commercial use, especially for LIDAR systems, which operate similarly to radars. 2 µ wavelength allows one to absorb certain atmospheric gasses (e.g. H2O, CO2, N2O) to detect and to analyse them. One of the key advantages of this laser for LIDAR technology is the capability to detect specific lighter atmospheric gasses and molecules. It has a greater potential than thulium fiber laser in chemical and petroleum industries due to safety and quality control as well as in medicine and environmental research.

Medical Applications

Moreover, holmium laser is very promising in terms of medical applications. High water absorption allows performing extra precise surgeries; 2.1 µ emission coagulation effects minimize bleeding. Ho:YAG penetrates into a soft tissue at the depth of 300 µ. However, thulium fiber laser has its own advantages in performing surgical procedures. Holmium laser systems have a lot of potential and, definitely, require further developments and research. They can be applied in a lot of different industries for various purposes, including spectroscopy, sensing and surgery.

Atomic Cooling: scientific laser systems (laboratory laser, laser equipment)

Principles of Atomic Cooling

Since 1976 scientists have been working on the idea of controlling (cooling, trapping) atoms with laser equipment. The atom trapped in the laboratory laser beam absorbs photons and becomes excited; photons can transmit their impulses to the atom. When atoms are de-excited, they reemit photons in random directions. As a result the atom experiences light pressure in the direction of the laser beam spread. Atoms get excited when the frequency drift is similar to the optical transition.
If an atomic gas is irradiated from each side with the laser frequency that is less than that of an atomic transition, the number of slow atoms grows leading to the temperature decrease.

First Experiments in Atomic Cooling

The first atomic cooling experiment was conducted in the laser spectroscopy department of ISAN. Using the laboratory laser in dilatational cooling the transverse velocity is increased due to the growth of fluctuation atom impulses when laser light photons are absorbed and emitted. At some point of dilatational cooling its speed becomes comparable to that of the transverse one and for further dilatational cooling the transverse cooling of the beam has to be performed. First time it was done in the laboratory in 1984, and the record atom temperature of 0.003 K was reached. This temperature is close to the Doppler cooling.

Impact on Atomic Manipulation

All these experiments with scientific laser systems allowed decreasing the energy of neutral atoms to the levels when their space localization with electric, magnetic and laser fields became possible. This opened new opportunities for sharp decreasing the temperature of the atoms that were already cooled down.

Global Research and Techniques

ISAN was the first laboratory in the world to start experiments with controlling the atomic motion with laser equipment. Today there are dozens of laboratories around the world that work on this aspect using different scientific laser systems.
Different methods exist to cool neutral and excited particles (atoms, molecules and their ions), they are based on various dissipation processes. For example, electric cooling of excited particles is done through the collision of hot atoms and cold electron fluid. However, the most popular and effective way to cool neutral atoms (and localized ions as well) is the collision of those atoms and laser beam photons.

Utilizing Nd:YAG Q-switched Lasers in Solid-State Laser Technology

Introduction to Q-Switching

Q-switching technique is usually utilized in solid-state laser technology to generate nanosecond high energy pulses. It creates short pulses through regulating cavity losses. Q factor (quality factor) is a definition of an oscillation damping strength measurement.

Types of Q-Switching

There are two types of q-switching: passive and active.

Active Q-Switching

Active q-switching technique uses an electrically controlled modulator (acousto-optic or electro-optic). It is applied to control optical losses which are high initially, but in the process of switching they are lowered abruptly. Pump phase and the gain-medium upper-state lifetime should be roughly the same to avoid losing energy in spontaneous emissions. Energy loss through spontaneous emissions becomes significant when laser gain is high. However, it is not the biggest concern when it comes to bulk lasers. A bigger issue is parasitic lasing because of unwanted reflections or q-switch. To avert the lasing a modulator should have a high pump phase when performing power losses.
It is possible to design smaller mode area lasers when the energy per pulse and energy stored are lowered due to high pulse repetition rates (10 kHz, 100 kHz or more). However, high repetition rates create another issue – collecting enough laser gain even when stored energy is low, because when the gain is low pulses become longer. Even in case of high average powers it can still be problematic, because it may need bigger beam areas. That is why it is better to select a crystal providing a higher laser gain, for example, Nd:YVO4.

Passive Q-Switching

Passive q-switching technique uses a saturable absorber instead of an electrical modulator. There is a high optical loss when it is in the unsaturated state. To start the lasing a laser gain has to reduce that loss. When the emission increases, it saturates losses, and the laser power grows fast, which leads to the gain saturation.
It may give an impression that it is poor because of the absorption; however this is not the case. Just a little portion of energy is required for an absorber transparency, when the laser gain medium saturation energy is higher than the absorber energy. One of the most common crystals used in this case is Nd:YAG.
The pumping in a passive q-switched laser continues up to a moment when a pulse build up begins. This process begins when there is enough energy stored in the gain medium. The main difference between passive and active q-switching technique is that in case of a passive one the pumping power change does not affect the energy pulse, it will only effect the timing. In active q-switching technique both will be affected, the energy pulse and timing.