NP Photonics (United States)

Ytterbium (Yb3+)-doped materials have been widely used for high efficiency high energy laser sources at the 1 µm wavelength region because of their very low quantum defect and the unique simple energy level structure of Yb3+, resulting in no excited-state absorption and low occurrence probability of deleterious ion-ion interaction processes. It has been generally recognized that these ion-ion interaction processes have very little influence on the operation of Yb3+-doped fiber lasers at low and moderate power levels. However, our recent study shows that the performance of Yb3+-doped fiber amplifiers operating at low power levels is still influenced by the ion-ion interaction processes due to the large amount of population at the upper laser level 2F5/2. In this paper, experimental evidences of the ion-ion interaction effects in Yb3+-doped fiber amplifiers are presented and a new model including these effects is developed for the numerical simulation. Our experimental and numerical investigations on the 976 nm and 1030 nm Yb3+-doped silica and phosphate fiber amplifiers show that ion-ion interaction has non-negligible impact on the performance of Yb3+-doped fiber amplifiers indeed, and compared to Yb3+-doped silica fibers, Yb3+-doped phosphate fibers suffer much less from the ion-ion interaction effects due to the much less clustered ions.

All-fiber single-transverse-mode laser oscillators operating at 785 nm were demonstrated by splicing a 0.1 mol% Tm 3+ -doped fluoride fiber with a core diameter of 4 μm and a numerical aperture of 0.07 to a pair of silica fiber Bragg gratings. About 500 mW of continuous-wave single transverse mode laser output at 784.5 nm with a 3-dB spectral bandwidth of 0.2 nm was obtained by upconversion pumping a 3-m-long gain fiber at 1125 nm. Our experiments show that the ground-state absorption of Tm 3+ at 785 nm is the origin of low efficiency in previous reports. The efficiency of this all-fiber laser can be improved by using a gain fiber with an optimized overlap between the laser, the pump, and the fiber core, and employing new pumping schemes that deplete the ground state sufficiently.

An all-fiber amplifier for a single-frequency blue laser was demonstrated for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. Over 150mW continuous-wave single-transverse-mode blue laser output was obtained with a 10m 1000ppm thulium-doped fluoride fiber pumped by a 1125nm fiber laser at a power of 2W. The output power was limited due to the onset of the competitive lasing at 783nm. Photodarkening and photo-curing of the thulium-doped fiber amplifier were also studied and analyzed.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase II [NNX15CP19C]; National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Integrated Access Networks [EEC-0812072]; Technology Research Initiative Fund (TRIF) Photonics Initiative of the University of Arizona

In-band core-pumped Ho3+-doped ZBLAN fiber lasers at the 1.2 μm region were investigated with different gain fiber lengths. A 2.4 W 1190 nm all-fiber laser with a slope efficiency of 42% was achieved by using a 10 cm long gain fiber pumped at a maximum available 1150 nm pump power of 5.9 W. A 1178 nm all-fiber laser was demonstrated with an output power of 350 mW and a slope efficiency of 6.5%. High Ho3+ doping in ZBLAN is shown to be effective in producing single-frequency fiber lasers and short-length fiber amplifiers immune from stimulated Brillouin scattering.

Linearly polarized wavelength stable single frequency ytterbium (Yb³⁺) doped fiber lasers below 1 μm, namely threelevel Yb³⁺ fiber lasers, are highly demanded for nonlinear wavelength conversion to generate coherent blue light or even deep ultraviolet coherent sources. We present performance of a 976 nm single-frequency core-pumped distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) fiber laser consisting of a 2-cm long highly ytterbium-doped phosphate fiber and a pair of silica fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) and their use for frequency doubling experiment. The high reflection (HR > 99%) and partial reflection (PR = 60%) FBGs were cleaved very close to the index modulation region and directly spliced to a 2-cm-long highly Yb³⁺-doped phosphate fiber. Over 100 mW of linearly polarized output with a linewidth less than 2 kHz can be obtained when the launched pump power is about 450 mW. The efficiency of the 976 nm single-frequency fiber laser (the output power vs the launched pump power) is about 25%. The relative intensity noise was measured to be -110 dB/Hz at 1 MHz and the variation of the center wavelength is less than 0.0005 nm during a measurement period of 2.5 hours. This single-frequency fiber laser has an SNR of over 50 dB and there is no strong ASE or spurious lasing at long wavelengths even at the maximum pump power. This all-fiber single-frequency DBR laser with attractive features can be used for efficient blue and UV generation through nonlinear frequency conversion. Moreover, this high-performance 976 nm single-frequency fiber laser can be used as a single-frequency, low RIN pump laser for long wavelength Yb³⁺-, Er³⁺-, or Yb³⁺/Er³⁺-doped fiber lasers and amplifiers.

We present the performance of a single frequency, single-polarization holmium (Ho³⁺)-doped ZBLAN (ZrF₄-BaF₂-LaF₃- AlF₃-NaF) fiber laser at 1200 nm. This distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) fiber laser was developed by splicing a 22 mm long highly Ho³⁺-doped ZBLAN fiber to a pair of silica fiber Bragg gratings (FBG). The successful fusion splicing of silica fiber to ZBLAN fiber, with their very different melting temperatures, was accomplished by using NP Photonics proprietary splicing technique. The 3 mol% Ho³⁺-doped ZBLAN fiber had a core diameter of 6.5 μm and a cladding diameter of 125 μm. The threshold of this laser was seen to be about 260 mW, and when the pump power was 520 mW, the output power was about 10 mW. The efficiency of the 1200 nm single-frequency fiber laser, i.e. the ratio of the output power to the launched pump power, was about 3.8%. The linewidth of the 1200 nm single-frequency fiber laser was estimated to be about 100 kHz by comparing the measured frequency noise of the 1200 nm single-frequency fiber laser with that of 1 μm NP Photonics single-frequency fiber lasers whose linewidths have been measured to be in the 1- 10 kHz range. The relative intensity noise of this DBR all-fiber laser was measured to be < 110 dB/Hz at the relaxation oscillation peak and the polarization extinction ratio was measured to be > 19 dB. Due to its low phonon energy and long radiative lifetimes, rare-earth-doped ZBLAN allows various transitions that are typically terminated in silica glass, resulting in ultraviolet, visible, and infrared rare-earth doped ZBLAN lasers. Therefore, our results highlight the exciting prospect that the accessible wavelength range of single-frequency DBR fiber lasers can be expanded significantly by using rare-earth-doped ZBLAN fibers.

with TERC secondary, 156 RR lens,[115][116][117]

This chapter contains sections titled: What Is Illumination? A Brief History of Illumination Optics Units Intensity Illuminance and Irradiance Luminance and Radiance Important Factors in Illumination Design Standard Optics Used in Illumination Engineering The Process of Illumination System Design Is Illumination Engineering Hard? Format for Succeeding Chapters References

A new method to design a freeform lens for uniform rectangular illumination is proposed in this paper. This new method is based on freeform and TIR-Freeform structure. It can increase the light efficiency to as high as 90%.