Fiber Optic Solutions for Short Pulse Lasers

Beach, R ; Dawson, J ; Liao, Z ; Jovanovic, I ; Wattellier, B ; Payne, S ; Barty, C P

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

关键词: Dimensions;    Fibers;    Waveguides;    Refractive Index;    Apertures;   

DOI  :  10.2172/15003846
RP-ID  :  UCRL-ID-151832
RP-ID  :  W-7405-ENG-48
RP-ID  :  15003846

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

For applications requiring high beam quality radiation from efficient, compact and rugged sources, diffraction limited fiber lasers are ideal, and to date have been demonstrated at average CW power levels exceeding 100 W with near diffraction limited: output. For conventional single-core step-index single-mode fibers, this power level represents the sealing limit because of nonlinear and laser damage considerations. Higher average powers would exceed nonlinear process thresholds such as the Raman and stimulated Brillouin scattering limit, or else damage the fiber due to the high intensity level in the fiber's core. The obvious way to increase the average power capability of fibers is to increase the area of their core. Simply expanding the core dimensions of the fiber allows a straightforward power sealing due to enhanced nonlinear and power handling characteristics that scale directly with the core area. Femtosecond, chirped-pulse, fiber lasers with pulse energies greater than 1mJ have been demonstrated in the literature [2] using this technique. This output energy was still limited by the onset of stimulated Raman scattering. We have pursued an alternative and complimentary approach which is to reduce the intensity of light propagating in the core by distributing it more evenly across the core area via careful design of the refractive index profile [3]. We have also sought to address the primary issue that results from scaling the core. The enhanced power handling capability comes at the expense of beam quality, as increasing the core diameter in standard step index fibers permits multiple transverse modes to lase simultaneously. Although this problem of multimode operation can be mitigated to some extent by appropriately designing the fiber's waveguide structure, limitations such as bend radius loss, sensitivity to thermally induced perturbations of the waveguide structure, and refractive index control, all become more stringent as the core diameter grows, limiting the extent to which the core diameter can be grown and still ensure single mode operation from the fiber. The large flattened mode fiber addresses some of these limitations and enables a new approach to single transverse mode operation of large mode area (LMA) fibers, providing a route to high average powers exceeding 1 kW from a single aperture in a Strehi-ratio-optimizing fiat-topped output beam.