The Changing Technology of Solid State Lasers

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The Changing Technology of Solid State Lasers The Changing Technology of Solid State Lasers Peter F. Moulton Q-Peak, Inc. 135 South Road Bedford, MA 01730 CLEO 2004 San Francisco, CA May 20, 2004 Introduction Example of early fiber laser success: Er-doped silica 4 F7/2 2 H11/2 4 S3/2 W50 4 F9/2 W22 4 I9/2 4 I11/2 N2 2.8 μm W11 4 I13/2 N1 W22 W Pump 11 W50 4 I15/2 Outline • Quick review of fiber-laser designs • Diode pump lasers for bulk and fiber lasers • The battle for cw power • The changing boundaries of short-pulse lasers • Driving nonlinear optics • Fiber and bulk lasers working together • Future directions - photonic fibers • Summary Quick review of fiber-laser designs Cladding-pumped fiber laser allows multimode pumping of single-mode cores Elias Snitzer first described cladding pumped lasers in 1988 Maurer, U.S Patent 3,808,549 (April 30, 1974) J. Kafka, U.S. Patent 4,829,529 (May 9, 1989) Non-circularly symmetric cladding geometries permit effective overlap with laser core http://www.iap.uni-jena.de/fawl/rdtfawl.html Absorption length is increased by the ratio of cladding to core areas End-pumped double-clad requires dichroic mirrors and “bright” pump source Signal output @~1.1 μm HT @972 nm Diode stack HR @~1.1 μm @972 nm, 1 kW HT @975 nm HR @~1.1 μm Double-clad Yb-doped fibre II HT @975 nm HR @~1.1 μm Ytterbium-doped large-core fiber laser with 1 kW continuous-wave output power Y. Jeong, J.K. Sahu, D. N. Payne, and J. Nilsson, ASSP 2004 Lucent design allowed access to end of fiber and multiple pump ports D. J. DiGiovanni US patent #5,864,644 Multi-Mode Coupler Approach - IPG Photonics Multi-Mode Coupler Region • Multi-Mode coupler is created by fusing under high temperature conditions double-clad doped fiber with multi-mode fiber from pump source SPI has GTWave Technology > 70 W per module TM V-Groove Side Pumping: Keopsys Principle: double-cladding V-groove fiber adhesive substrate micro-lens Side View End view broad stripe Laser diode ¾ High efficiency coupling (>90%) with broad area inexpensive laser diodes & multiple V-grooves ¾ Simple & compact packaging, with large alignment tolerances ¾ No loss of light in core and no need for multiplexer Embedded mirror design from NRL J.P. Koplow, S.W. Moore, and D.A.V. Kliner, JQE 39, 529 (2003) Beyond double-clad designs, further strategies are needed for fiber-laser power scaling • Eventually, the small area of the mode in the core creates limits: – Optical damage to the fiber faces (more later) – Bulk damage at flaws or defects – Nonlinear optical effects in the bulk of the fiber • Nonlinear effects include: – Stimulated Brillouin scattering for single-frequency sources, cw or pulsed > 10 ns • Adds frequency components and can lead to backward wave generation and catastrophic pulse shortening • Threshold follows (Core area)/(Fiber length) – Stimulated Raman scattering • Adds frequency components, may limit NL conversion • Threshold follows (Core area)/(Fiber length) • Larger core/mode size is desirable – lower intensity and shorter fiber length for double-clad designs Step index fiber - limits for single mode θmax NA = sin(θmax ) nc nc 2 2 a NAstep=f n − c n V= 2 π NA λ o a is core radius, λ is wavelength V < 2.405 for single-mode fiber Relation of core diameter to NA for step-index fiber 0.7 0.6 0.5 Wavelength (um) 0.4 1.06 NA 1.55 0.3 Below an NA of 0.06 or so, 0.2 bend losses are problematic 0.1 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 Core diameter (um) From Fluke Networks Application Note Coiling fiber allows single-mode with V > 2.4 25 um core diameter, NA 0.1 (V=7.4 at 1064 nm) Straight (left) 1.58 cm coil dia. (right) J. Koplow, D. Kliner and L. Goldberg, Optics Lett. 25, 442 (2000). Other tricks around the core size limits Complex index profiles J.A. Alvarez-Chavez et al., Opt. Lett 25, 37 (2000). Tapered sections http://www.orc.soton.ac.uk/hpfl/tapers.php Or, careful launching of low-temporal coherence, single-mode beam into high-quality, multimode fiber M.E. Fermann, Opt. Lett. 23, 52 (1998). Diode pump lasers for bulk and fiber lasers JDSU 5-W 915-nm diode laser Telcordia-qualified, long-lifetime pump JDS Uniphase's ultra-reliable 6390 series laser diodes offer 5 W of laser power from a 100 µm fiber into 0.2 NA. The L3 package is a redesign of the existing fiber- coupled L2 package, incorporating telecom design approaches into a commercial product and resulting in a reliability of >200,000 hours MTBF. Coherent 808nm 30W FAP-B MTTF: 47000hrs(90%CL) 1.1 1 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 23395 0.4 25325 Normalized Power Normalized 28498 0.3 28500 0.2 28501 23864 0.1 0 0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 35000 Time (hrs) DARPA SHEDS Program (find CLEO talk ref.) Attribute Current 18 Mo. 36 Mo. Bar power conversion eff. 50% 65% -- Bar power output 80W Stack PCE 50% -- 80% Stack Power 480W Spectral Width 10-15nm 2nm 2nm Uniformity of wavelength ±10nm ±0.5nm ±0.5nm across the emitting area 80 60 60 40 40 100% Efficiency (%) Efficiency 50% 20 Output power (W) 20 Intensity / Imax Intensity 0% 930. 940. 950. 960. Wavelength (nm) 0 0 0 20406080 Current (A) High-brightness pump sources • Apollo Instruments fiber-coupled diode lasers (0.22 NA): – 35 W from 100 um – 150 W from 200 um – 400 W from 400 um – 500 W from 600 um, 0.22 NA fiber • Laserlines stacked, beam-shaped bars – 500 W, 40x50 mrad – 1000 W, 60x80 mrad – 6000 W, 85x400 mrad • Nuvonyx stacked, beam-shaped bars – 4000W, focusable to 12.5 x 0.5 mm spot The battle for cw power Contenders for high-power industrial solid state lasers transversally INNOSLAB laser pumped rod laser fibre laser end-pumped thin disk fibre laser laser “Y”-pumped Toshiba and Shibaura Nd:YAG rod lasers Shibaura LAL-210/220/230/240/260 SERIES 4.5 kW with 600 um fiber “Toshiba succeeded in obtaining an output power of 12 kW with an efficiency of 23 %, which are, to our knowledge, the highest values for a Nd:YAG laser.” MELCo March 2002 Press Release “Mitsubishi Electric recently announced an all-solid-state laser that is the world's most efficient laser of its kind. The new laser converts 23% of the electrical power it receives into light energy. That is more efficient than any other solid-state laser.” Pcw = 1 kW, Ppulse = 10 kW, focusable to 50 um Trumpf diode-pumped Nd:YAG rod lasers Laser device Max. output Laser power at Beam quality Laser light power (Watts) the workpiece (mm * mrad) cable (Watts)* (microns) HLD 1003 1300 1000 12 300 HLD 3504 4500 3500 16 400 HLD 4506 6000 4500 25 600 Rofin-Sinar diode-pumped Nd:YAG rod lasers ROFIN DY ROFIN ROFIN ROFIN 022 DY 027 DY 033 DY 044 Excitation Laser Laser Laser Laser diodes diodes diodes diodes Output power 2200 W 2700 W 3300 W 4400 W Beam 12 12 12 12 parameter mm*mrad mm*mrad mm*mrad mm*mrad product Fiber 400 µm 400 µm 400 µm 400 µm diameter From Giesen Thermal limits (Evaluated by Brown and Hoffman, IEEE JQE vol. 37, p. 207, 2001) Fracture: 10 kW/m of heat generation leads to fracture Thermal beam distortions: 0.2 kW/m leads to Δn= 10-4 over core Temperature rise: 0.15 kW/m leads to ΔT = 50 K 0.1 kW/m of heating demonstrated in practice without problems Heat generation in YDFLs ~15% of output power: 150 W/kW → ~1 kW/m optical power generation in efficient YDFLs Enumerate latest fiber-laser data from ASSP, CLEO • Southampton – 1 KW – SF 240 W • Tunnerman • IMRA • IPG • NGST Show Southampton results IPG Photonics YLR-HP Series: 1-10kWatt Ytterbium Fiber Lasers •Up to 10 kWatt Output Optical Power •Over 20% Wall-Plug Efficiency •Excellent Beam Parameter Product •>50,000 Hours Pump Diode Lifetime •Air or Water Cooled Versions •Maintenance Free Operation •Up to 200 m Fiber Delivery •2 Year Warranty Newest from IPG May 6, 2004, Burbach Germany- IPG Photonics today demonstrated a revolutionary new model high brightness 5.5 kilowatt Ytterbium fiber laser for remote welding to representatives of the European automotive and heavy industry communities. This new laser operates at 1070nm, and provides significant features that include a beam parameter product of 4.3 mm milli-radians, a delivery fiber of 100 microns, rapid response modulation, greater than 25% wall plug efficiency, and a new robust industrial interface including digital, analog and tele-control of the laser parameters. This combination of high brightness and small diameter fiber delivery, allows the use of a 1.4 meter focal length to achieve spot sizes required for remote welding applications. In addition, the laser allows long stand off distances on conventional cutting and welding applications, greatly reducing the risk of delivery fiber damage at the output end of the fiber. This achievement allows IPG to increase the company’s leadership position in offering the highest beam quality available from kilowatt class industrial lasers. These lasers represent a substantially better beam quality than that predicted from the 4kW diode pumped disc lasers scheduled for release in late 2004. The Empire Strikes Back: thin-disk lsaers From Giesen Single-disk results From Giesen Single-disk results From Giesen Single-disk results Trumpf introduces a 4 kilowatt thin-disk laser and a scanner for high-power remote-welding at the Munich show.
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