Ultrafast fiber laser produces record high power
With more than 10 kW of power, new design demonstrates capabilities of coherent beam combining

Date:
October 13, 2020
Source:
The Optical Society
Summary:
Researchers have developed an ultrafast fiber laser that delivers
an average power more than ten times what is available from
today's high- power lasers. The technology is poised to improve
industrial-scale materials processing and paves the way for
visionary applications.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Researchers have developed an ultrafast fiber laser that delivers
an average power more than ten times what is available from today's
high-power lasers. The technology is poised to improve industrial-scale materials processing and paves the way for visionary applications.


========================================================================== Michael Mu"ller, a Ph.D. student of Prof. Jens Limpert from the Friedrich Schiller University's Institute of Applied Physics and the Fraunhofer
Institute of Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering in
Jena, Germany, will present the new laser at the all-virtual 2020 OSA
Laser Congress to be held 12-16 October. The presentation is scheduled
for Tuesday, 13 October at 14:30 EDT.

High power without the heat In lasers, waste heat is generated in the
process of light emission. Laser geometries with a large surface-to-volume ratio, such as fibers, can dissipate this heat very well. Thus, an
average power of about 1 kilowatt is obtained from today's high-power
lasers. Beyond this power, the heat load degrades the beam quality and
poses a limit.

To circumvent this limitation, the research team around Mu"ller and
Limpert created a new laser that externally combines the output of 12
laser amplifiers.

They showed that the laser can produce 10.4 kW average power without degradation of the beam quality. Thermographic imaging of the final beam combiner revealed a marginal heating. Thus, power scaling to the 100-kW
level could be accomplished by adding even more amplifier channels.

In the future, high-power combined lasers not only will accelerate
industrial processing, but also enable formerly visionary applications
such as laser- driven particle acceleration and space debris removal,"
said Mu"ller.

The investigation of novel applications at that power level as well as
the transfer of the laser technology to commercial systems is ongoing
within the frame of the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence "Advanced Photon Sources" (CAPS), which foremost involves engineering of the laboratory
setup into a rugged design. On the research side, the team in Jena now
focuses on multicore fibers that offer the potential to deliver even
superior performance in simpler and smaller systems.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by The_Optical_Society. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


==========================================================================


Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201013105809.htm

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