SPIE - Education High-Power Fiber Sources SC748

This course describes the current state of the art, research directions, and principles of high-power fiber lasers and amplifiers. Recent advances have permitted output powers of these devices to reach well over a kilowatt, and underpinning fiber technology, pump lasers and pump coupling will be addressed. Rare-earth-doped fiber devices including those based on Yb-doped fibers at 1.0 - 1.1 μm and the more complicated Er:Yb codoped fibers at 1.5 - 1.6 μm and Tm-doped fibers at 2 μm will be described in detail. Operating regimes extend from continuous-wave single-frequency to short pulses. Key equations will be introduced to establish limits and identify critical parameters. For example, high pump brightness is critical for some devices but not others. Methods to mitigate limitations in different operating regimes will be discussed. A large core is a critical fiber design feature of high-power fiber lasers, and the potential and limits of this approach will be covered, e.g., as it comes to beam quality. Advanced options such as beam combining and electronic control for enhanced performance will be considered, as well, together with other topics of particular interest to attendees (insofar as time allows).