The rise in output power from rare-earth-doped fiber sources over the past decade, via the use of cladding-pumped fiber architectures, has been dramatic, leading to a range of fiber-based devices with outstanding performance in terms of output power, beam quality, overall efficiency, and flexibility with regard to operating wavelength and radiation format. This success in the high-power arena is largely due to the fiber’s geometry, which provides considerable resilience to the effects of heat generation in the core, and facilitates efficient conversion from relatively low-brightness diode pump radiation to high-brightness laser output. In this paper we review the current state of the art in terms of continuous-wave and pulsed performance of ytterbium-doped fiber lasers, the current fiber gain medium of choice, and by far the most developed in terms of high-power performance. We then review the current status and challenges of extending the technology to other rare-earth dopants and associated wavelengths of operation. Throughout we identify the key factors currently limiting fiber laser performance in different operating regimes—in particular thermal management, optical nonlinearity, and damage. Finally, we speculate as to the likely developments in pump laser technology, fiber design and fabrication, architectural approaches, and functionality that lie ahead in the coming decade and the implications they have on fiber laser performance and industrial/scientific adoption.

High power fiber lasers: current status and future perspectives [Invited]

Leu-M

Fibre lasers in the mid-infrared regime are useful for a diverse range of fields, including chemical and biomedical sensing, military applications and materials processing. This Review summarizes the different rare-earth cations and host materials used in mid-infrared fibre laser technology, and discusses the future applications and challenges for the field.

Towards high-power mid-infrared emission from a fibre laser

Gas discharge plasmas and their applications

The ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier offers a number of attractive features, including a broad-gain bandwidth and a high efficiency, due in large part to its freedom from various competing processes seen in other rare-earth dopants. Here we discuss the main features that influence design and possible applications of ytterbium-doped fiber amplifiers.

Ytterbium-doped fiber amplifiers

Ytterbium-doped silica fibers exhibit very broad absorption and emission bands, from /spl sim/800 nm to /spl sim/1064 nm for absorption and /spl sim/970 nm to /spl sim/1200 nm for emission. The simplicity of the level structure provides freedom from unwanted processes such as excited state absorption, multiphonon nonradiative decay, and concentration quenching. These fiber lasers therefore offer a very efficient and convenient means of wavelength conversion from a wide variety of pump lasers, including AlGaAs and InGaAs diodes and Nd:YAG lasers. Efficient operation with narrow linewidth at any wavelength in the emission range can be conveniently achieved using fiber gratings. A wide range of application for these sources can be anticipated. In this paper, the capabilities of this versatile source are reviewed. Analytical procedures and numerical data are presented to enable design choices to be made for the wide range of operating conditions. >

/pdf/ytterbium-doped-silica-fiber-lasers-versatile-sources-for-qjavzdlo6k.pdf

Ytterbium-doped silica fiber lasers: versatile sources for the 1-1.2 /spl mu/m region

We observe marked increases in the time-averaged intensity, peak intensity, efficiency and spectral purity of the VUV output from an Xe excimer barrier discharge lamp when using short-pulse (~150 ns FWHM (full width half maximum)) excitation. Intensity increases with Xe pressure up to 600 Torr with a maximum output 2.6 times higher and an efficiency 3.2 times higher than the same lamp excited by conventional ac excitation (i.e. sinusoidal voltage waveform). The output occurs in regular short pulses (<300 ns FWHM) with a peak intensity more than six times the peak intensity typically obtained using ac. The spectral characteristics are similar to that observed using ac excitation except that the ratio of VUV to visible Xe* emission increases by a factor of three. The pulsed discharge appears diffuse (i.e. glow-like), even at the higher pressures at which the ac discharge is filamentary. It is concluded that the enhanced performance results largely from the ability for pulsed excitation to generate a discharge at near atmospheric pressures with a much lower electron density than that possible using ac.

Enhanced performance of a dielectric barrier discharge lamp using short-pulsed excitation

A detailed rate-equation analysis has been used to simulate the plasma kinetics in a pulsed-excited dielectric barrier discharge in xenon, under operating conditions where the discharge structure is spatially homogeneous. The one-dimensional model, incorporating 14 species and 70 reaction processes, predicts results that are in good agreement with experimental measurements of the electrical characteristics, and optical (vaccum-ultraviolet (VUV) and visible) pulse shapes. The model reveals that electrical breakdown of the discharge gap occurs via a fast-moving ionization/excitation wavefront that starts close to the anode dielectric and propagates towards the cathode at ~3×105 m s−1. The wavefront appears as a result of successive avalanches of electrons that propagate across the discharge gap after release from the cathode dielectric. During breakdown, the mean electron energy in the bulk plasma is close to optimum for preferential excitation of the Xe* 1s4,5 states that feed the VUV emitting Xe2* excimer states. Calculations suggest that the overall conversion efficiency from electrical energy to VUV output in the plasma is greater than 60%, with >99% of the light output emitted in the VUV. Parasitic processes that act to reduce the key Xe* 1s4,5 and Xe2* populations are found to be essentially negligible. For pulsed excitation, the longer-term spatio-temporal behaviour of the electron/ions during the afterglow or inter-pulse period is important, resulting in a remnant `pre-pulse' ion density of ~1015 m−3 close to the cathode dielectric. These ions bombard the cathode during the subsequent excitation period to release the secondary (seed) electrons required to achieve electrical breakdown.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0022-3727/36/1/304/pdf

Computer modelling of a short-pulse excited dielectric barrier discharge xenon excimer lamp (λ∼172 nm)

A self-consistent computer model has been developed to simulate the discharge kinetics and lasing characteristics of a copper-vapor laser (CVL) for typical operating conditions. Using a detailed rate-equation analysis, the model calculates the spatio-temporal evolution of the population densities of 11 atomic and ionic copper levels, four neon levels, and includes 70 collisional and radiative processes, in addition to radial particle transport. The long-term evolution of the plasma is taken into account by integrating the set of coupled rate equations describing the discharge and electrical circuit through multiple excitation-afterglow cycles. A time-dependent two-electron group model, based on a bi-Maxwellian electron energy distribution function, has been used to evaluate the energy partitioning between the copper vapor and the neon-buffer gas. The behavior of the plasma in the cooler end regions of the discharge tube near the electrodes, where the plasma kinetics are dominated by the buffer gas, has also been modeled. Results from the model have been compared to experimental data for a narrow-bore (/spl phi/=1.8 cm) CVL operating under optimum conditions. Close agreement is obtained between the results from the model and experimental data when comparing electrical I-V characteristics of the discharge tube and circuit, and spatio-temporal evolution of the population densities of the laser levels and other excited Cu I and Ne I states, and lasing characteristics. During the period of lasing action, the populations of the laser levels are perturbed by 10-20 percent due to stimulated emission. >

Robert Carman

Papers

Ytterbium-doped silica fiber lasers: versatile sources for the 1-1.2 /spl mu/m region

Enhanced performance of a dielectric barrier discharge lamp using short-pulsed excitation

Computer modelling of a short-pulse excited dielectric barrier discharge xenon excimer lamp (λ∼172 nm)

A self-consistent model for the discharge kinetics in a high-repetition-rate copper-vapor laser

Collisional radiative model for the sputtered copper atoms and ions in a direct current argon glow discharge