Clemson University TigerPrints All Dissertations Dissertations May 2020 The Materials Science and Engineering of Advanced YB-Doped Glasses and Fibers for High-Power Lasers Thomas Wade Hawkins Clemson University,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations Recommended Citation Hawkins, Thomas Wade, "The Materials Science and Engineering of Advanced YB-Doped Glasses and Fibers for High-Power Lasers" (2020). All Dissertations. 2585. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/2585 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TigerPrints. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. THE MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING OF ADVANCED YB-DOPED GLASSES AND FIBERS FOR HIGH-POWER LASERS A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of Clemson University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Materials Science and Engineering by Thomas Wade Hawkins May 2020 Accepted by: Dr. Liang Dong, Committee Chair Dr. John Ballato Dr. Peter Dragic Dr. Stephen Foulger Dr. Philip Brown ABSTRACT This research studies and yields new understandings into the materials science and engineering of advanced multicomponent glass systems, which is critical for next generation fiber lasers operating at high output powers. This begins with the study and development of Yb-doped glasses in the Al2O3-P2O5-SiO2 (APS) ternary system, fabricated using modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD), that, despite being highly doped, possess an average refractive index matched to that of silica (SiO2). The highly doped active core material was subsequently processed through a multiple stack-and- draw process to realize a single fiber with high doping, compositionally-tailored index, and scalability for fiber lasers.