High power fiber lasers are extraordinary devices. The laser has been the most significant, after the transistor, technological invention since World War 2. Nowadays lasers and laser systems find widespread application in different fields of science, engineering, and technology. They can be used for scanning barcodes, machining and welding, reading compact discs, printing paper, precision surgery (in particular here fiber lasers are applicable), enabling high-speed communications, finding distances, guiding precision munitions, and driving controlled nuclear fusion. Pulsed fiber lasers are applied in elevated tasks such as the production of controlled nuclear fusion and the laser eye surgery (ultrafast lasers), down to the mundane such as cosmetic hair removal. The impressive increase in lasers’ peak power has been overwhelming through the last 50 years: the peak power attainable in a laser pulse has increased by roughly a factor of 1,000 every 10 years. The ability to produce high powers with lasers stems from the quantum mechanics that enable their operation.
The easiest way to determine the laser is to characterize it as an amplifier. The laser works by pumping energy into electrons of atoms in some substance, called the gain material. These atoms can be assembled in a number of forms, and many different media suitable for lasers have been developed. The active atoms or molecules in laser media can be in gaseous forms such as the neon atoms in the ubiquitous helium-neon laser. They can also be semiconductor materials such as the gallium arsenide used in the diode or solid-state lasers. Or they can be embedded in crystals such as the chromium ion in ruby. High power fiber lasers capable of continuous output powers ranging from hundreds of watts of tens-of-thousands of watts present exciting opportunities for rapid, directed delivery of energy.
High power fiber lasers are much more progressive and promising than traditional lasers using solids or gases as the active medium in many aspects. In order to ensure the high beam quality of fiber lasers, it is necessary to select the appropriate core diameter and difference of relative refractive indices, which can reduce the number of transverse modes. The CO2 laser also provides the high beam quality. In addition to this, fiber lasers and fiber laser systems based on a thin optical fiber with a diameter of several hundred micrometers as an active medium can easily be cooled and therefore attains high power output while maintaining the laser beam quality. Also, high power fiber lasers have very low loss of pump and laser light because they are both confined and guided in the low-loss fiber core. The high quantum efficiency of ytterbium serving as the active element leads to 60-70% efficiency in energy conversion from pump light to laser light. In virtue of these factors, laser systems on the basis of the optical fiber achieve a high output power with a high energy conversion efficiency while maintaining a high beam quality. Owing to the very high energy conversion efficiency and a resonator consisting of fine fiber and small optical components, high power fiber lasers have a far smaller heat dissipation mechanism and power supply, and thus far smaller overall dimensions and weight than traditional high power lasers. Also, it should be noted, such lasers constructed by fusion-splicing optical fibers are not influenced by vibration, shock, or temperature changes, and therefore have stable output power and stable high beam quality. Besides the above-mentioned factors, high-power fiber lasers are practically maintenance-free due to the fact that the paths of the beam are not exposed to the atmosphere.
The designers, developers, and users of high power laser systems discuss design approaches, methods of enhancing performance, new applications, and user requirements.
Optromix Inc., headquartered in Cambridge, MA, USA, is a manufacturer of laser technologies, optical fiber sensors, and optical monitoring systems.
We develop and manufacture a broad variety of Fiber lasers, СО 2 lasers, Ti: Sapphire lasers, Dye lasers, and Excimer Lasers. We offer simple Erbium laser and Ytterbium laser products, as well as sophisticated laser systems with unique characteristics, based on the client’s inquiry.
We manufacture lasers using our own technologies based on the advanced research work and patents of international R&D team. Laser processes are high quality, high precision, easily-automated manufacturing solutions that provide repeatability and flexibility.
If you are interested in fiber laser systems, please contact us at info@optromix.com
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