Snitzer's earlier research culminated in the creation of the first solid-state glass laser in . His lab published both the first theory and observation of modes in an optical fiber. Both research programs contributed to the fiber laser's development.
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In comparison to conventional laser heat sources, the fiber laser has a number of advantages as listed below:
Fiber lasers have some disadvantages; these are listed below:
Fiber lasers are useful in a variety of applications due to the many power levels they can produce. Among them are:
The maximum power of a fiber laser can exceed 100 kW in some cases, particularly for fiber laser welding systems. Fabricators, however, don't have 100 kW systems ' their shop floors and beam delivery systems cannot handle that amount of power. Ultra-high power (UHP) fiber lasers are available in the range of 10 to 40 kW.
The average power of a fiber laser depends on its application. The most popular types for marking applications are pulsed fiber lasers with low average power (10'20 W), pulse durations of 100 ns, and pulse energies in the range of 0.5'1.0 mJ. To optimize production cycles, high-speed ablation and surface cleaning require higher average power and pulse energy. To implement these cheap procedures, pulsed fiber lasers with more than 500 W of average power and 50 mJ of pulse energy have been produced. QCW (quasi-continuous wave) fiber lasers have been developed for long pulse ranges (second- to millisecond-pulse duration) to meet the requirement of high pulse energy (up to 60 J) at lower average power (a few reach the 100 W range).
Fiber lasers' ability to scale in power is constrained by Brillouin and Raman scattering as well as the short length of the lasers themselves. Many components, including amplifiers, switches, and logic elements, require nonlinear fiber configurations.
There are two classes of nonlinear effects in optical fibers. The first one is brought on by the Kerr effect, or the intensity dependence of the medium's refractive index. This phenomenon manifests as one of three effects, depending on the type of input signal: cross-phase modulation (CPM), self-phase modulation (SPM), or four-wave mixing (FWM).
The second nonlinear effect occurs when the optical field transfers some of its energy to the nonlinear medium via inelastic scattering. Such inelastic scattering can result in phenomena like stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS).
Any form of stimulated scattering action can potentially be a source of gain for the fiber. In both processes, if the incident power rises above a specific threshold, the intensity of dispersed light increases exponentially. Because of the comparatively large frequency shift and the wider gain bandwidth, Raman amplification is more beneficial. The main distinction between them is that in Brillouin, the optical wave interacts with low-frequency acoustic phonons, whereas in Raman, the directed optical wave interacts with high-frequency optical phonons. Another key distinction is that SRS can happen in both directions while SBS only happens in the backward direction in optical fibers.
A fiber laser's beam quality depends on both the strength of intracavity distortions and certain aspects of the resonator design. Ideally, the device would create what is known as a Gaussian beam, but actual beam quality is always imperfect. The mathematical expression for a perfect beam quality is M2=1. A well-focused laser beam concentrates more energy into a smaller space. Some processes like laser welding avoid perfect beam quality so that they don't ablate much material. However, most (such as laser engraving and cleaning) require high-quality beams.
Some alternative cutting technologies to fiber lasers include:
Fiber lasers can be used to cut the following materials:
On the other hand, fiber laser cutters are not suitable for: glass fiber, leather, ceramics, polycarbonate, ABS, HDPE, polystyrene, and polypropylene foam.
As a general rule of thumb, materials below 0.1 inches won't require more than 10 kW of output power. At 0.1 inch, it's better to opt for a 15 kW machine. And at a thickness greater than 0.130, 20 kW or higher will suffice. Higher power results in more forgiving tolerances, faster cutting, and better accuracy. In general, doubling the power will result in a 20'30% rise in laser operating costs. However, increasing the laser power will also decrease the cost per inch and increase the laser machine's capacity and cutting speed.
There is no definitive answer to the question of how long a fiber laser will last. Like any device, fiber lasers can malfunction at any time from early life to the end of life. Across the industry, fiber lasers' "mean time between failures" (MTBF) is roughly 100,000 hours. Note, though, that this will vary for various fiber laser types.
The MTBF is an estimate of the laser's dependability and is calculated by testing several laser units, adding up the results, and dividing the result by the total number of failures.
Fiber lasers are designed based on specific design criteria. Each of the factors that affect laser design is discussed in the sections below.
The laser cavity is where the gain medium is housed. It contains multiple optical elements that help to increase the strength of the laser. In the case of fiber lasers, the gain medium is a fiber optic augmented with rare-earth elements.
Fusion splicing is a technique of splicing fiber optic cables together so that light will pass through them unhindered. If properly fusion spliced, the laser will produce energy much more efficiently.
Laser diodes are compact, effective semiconductors that transform electrical energy into laser light. These gadgets create the proper brightness and spectrum to be used to "pump" the doped fiber.
The rare earth ions embedded in the doped fiber then get excited by the laser beams produced by the laser diode pump sources. High gain levels are proportional to this excitement. The ability of a doping substance ' such as ytterbium ' to absorb the light from these pump lasers plays a role in its selection.
Dielectric mirrors are mirrors made up of more than one reflective material. They make the mirror more reflective than mirrors made from a single material. Fiber lasers use dielectric mirrors to further increase the gain of the laser output.
Distributed feedback (DF) fiber lasers have special qualities. A distributed feedback laser uses a gain medium and a periodic structure as its entire resonator, acting as a distributed reflector in the laser's operating wavelength range. A phase shift is often located in the center of this periodic structure. In essence, this structure functions as a series coupling of two Bragg gratings with optical gain.
The majority of distributed feedback lasers use a single resonator mode and are either fiber or semiconductor lasers. The distributed reflection in a fiber Bragg grating, which normally has a length of a few millimeters or centimeters, occurs in the case of a fiber laser.
Double-clad fiber is most common in high-power fiber lasers. The core of a double-clad fiber is doped with rare earth dopants. The desired beam quality attributes are provided by a standard single-mode fiber. However, single-mode pump laser diodes are necessary for a common single-mode fiber core. Properly designed, the diameter of this core allows for single-mode laser oscillation, which produces a high-quality beam.
A diffraction-limited beam has the highest brightness, or radiance, for a given optical power. 'Diffraction-limited' is used to describe a beam whose potential to focus on a small point for the given wavelength is only limited by unavoidable diffraction. In other words, it has the best possible beam quality.
The minimal beam parameter product is that of a Gaussian beam. It has flat wavefronts at the beam waist in addition to a Gaussian intensity profile if second moments are employed to define both values (beam focus). The diffraction limit does not apply to higher-order Hermite-Gaussian or Laguerre-Gaussian beams.
Given that its form is nearly Gaussian, a laser that works on the fundamental transverse resonator mode will typically have a diffraction-limited output. Intracavity beam distortions, such as those in the gain medium, can either deform the fundamental mode (though typically only with a mild effect on beam quality) or more frequently can result in transverse multimode operation, both of which can result in less-than-ideal beam quality. Optimizing the resonator design can be crucial for achieving a diffraction-limited output.
The nonlinear phenomenon known as stimulated Raman scattering occurs when energy from an optical pump beam is connected to longer wavelengths via the thermal phonons or vibrational modes of the medium's molecules. Any form of stimulated scattering action has the potential to be a source of gain for the fiber. If the incident power exceeds a specific threshold, the intensity of dispersed light increases exponentially at high power levels.
When narrow-band optical signals are amplified in a fiber amplifier or simply transmitted through a passive fiber, stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) frequently occurs.
The area that a waveguide or fiber mode covers in the transverse dimensions are quantified as the effective mode area. Optical fibers with very large effective mode areas (abbreviated as 'LMA fibers') are useful for various applications. However, they are frequently still guided in a single mode, or at best, have a few modes.
Large mode areas imply reduced optical intensities for a given optical power. These fibers have stronger damage thresholds and fewer nonlinear effects. Because of this, they can be used to amplify strong pulses or single-frequency signals in fiber amplifiers. Alternatively, in the case of passive fibers, they may even generate such light.
LMA fibers can reach area values of hundreds or even thousands of m2. Contrast this with ordinary single-mode fibers which have an effective mode area of less than 100 m2.
An optical component known as a saturable absorber has a specific absorption loss for light that decreases at high optical intensities. Saturable absorbers are mostly used in passive mode locking and for Q switching of lasers, which produces brief optical pulses. They can also be used in optical signal processing and nonlinear filtering outside the laser resonators to, for instance, clean up pulse forms.
The Kerr effect is a nonlinear optical phenomenon that affects the intensity dependence of the medium's refractive index. It takes the form of one of three effects, depending on the type of input signal: self-phase modulation (SPM), cross-phase modulation (CPM), or four-wave mixing (FWM). Using the nonlinear optical Kerr phenomenon, Kerr-lens mode-locking (KLM) specifies the laser's mode. With this technique, it is possible to produce light pulses with durations as brief as a few femtoseconds.
A semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror, or SESAM, is a particular kind of saturable absorber used in mode-locking lasers. A SESAM is a mirror structure that uses semiconductors as built-in saturable absorber media. SESAMs are frequently employed for laser passive mode locking, especially for solid-state bulk and fiber lasers.
Owing to its unique optical properties like an ultrabroad tuning range, graphene, and its oxides are widely used as saturable absorbers for all kinds of fiber lasers. Light signals are absorbed by graphene-saturable absorbers in order to prepare for specific outputs to follow.
A fundamental characteristic of fiber lasers with net normal dispersion is the generation of dark soliton, which is a dip in the amplitude of a continuous wave.
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Some fiber lasers can be used as multi-wavelength optical sources. This means they are capable of emitting light at multiple well-defined wavelengths at the same time.
A laser can emit pulses of light with an incredibly short duration, on the order of picoseconds (10-12 s) or femtoseconds (10-15 s), through a process called mode-locking. When a laser is locked in mode, one or sometimes two pulses are moving about in the laser resonator. A portion of the pulse's energy is released every time it strikes the output coupler mirror, resulting in a regular pulse train as the laser output. The pulse energy is refilled by the gain medium on each round trip.
The term "mode-locking" refers to a frequency domain interpretation in which a large number of axial resonator modes vibrate while their corresponding phases remain locked. The time domain, however, makes it simpler to understand what physically happens.
An actively mode-locked laser achieves mode locking using a modulator (such as an electro-optic type) that precisely synchronizes the resonator losses with the resonator round trips. When losses are at their lowest, the circulating pulse passes through the modulator. Slightly higher losses in the pulse wings cause the pulses to be briefer. A passively mode-locked laser's loss is modulated by a saturable absorber. The shorter the circulation pulses get, the quicker the loss modulation happens.
Passive mode locking produces a simpler laser setup since synchronization of the loss modulation is automatically completed and an electrical driver is not required. The pulse-producing process is more complex for a variety of reasons, making it, for example, far more difficult to achieve stable operation.
The main types of fiber lasers are classified depending on the laser source (thulium-doped, erbium-doped, or ytterbium-doped), mode, mode of operation (multi-mode or single-mode), and laser power.
The following can be used to classify fiber lasers:
The type of chemical used to dope the laser source impacts the light's wavelength. Examples include thulium-doped, erbium-doped, and ytterbium-doped fiber lasers. The distinct wavelengths that each of these laser types produces allow them to be employed for different applications.
Differing laser configurations emit laser beams in different ways. For high peak strengths, laser beams may be "q-switched," "mode-locked," or "gain-switched." They can also be pulsed at a predetermined repetition rate (such as in pulsed lasers). Alternatively, if they were continuous (continuous wave fiber lasers), they might continuously transmit the same quantity of energy.
Mode describes the core size of an optical fiber, which is where the light travels. The two types of fiber laser modes are multi-mode and single-mode. Multi-mode laser core widths often range from 50 to 100 micrometers while single-mode laser core diameters typically come in between 8 and 9 micrometers. Single-mode lasers often provide better beams and more efficient laser light transmission.
The term "laser power" refers to the average power of the laser beam, which is given in watts. High-power lasers generate more energy and do so quicker than low-power lasers.
Every fiber laser system transmits light along an optical fiber cable consisting of silica glass. Because it is smaller and straighter than with other types of lasers, the resulting laser beam is more precise. Additionally, they are compact in design, exhibit outstanding electrical efficiency, require little maintenance, and can operate cheaply. They are frequently utilized in industrial settings to carry out cutting, marking, welding, cleaning, texturing, drilling, and other operations. This versatility comes from the various wavelengths they can produce. They are also used in other industries, like telecommunications and medicine.
A fiber laser machine is a device whose operation depends, at least in part, on a built-in fiber laser system. The core components of a fiber laser cutting machine, for example, include:
Table 1 lists some of the top fiber laser marker and engraving machines on the market:
The First Optical Fiber Laser and Amplifier, -
In , Elias Snitzer and colleagues constructed and operated the world's first optical fiber laser in the former American Optical complex at 14 Mechanic Street. Three years later this team demonstrated the first optical fiber amplifier. Fiber lasers that can cut and weld steel have since become powerful industrial tools and fiber amplifiers routinely boost signals in the global optical fiber network allowing messages to cross oceans and continents without interruption.
The plaque may be viewed on the Southbridge Massachusetts Town Common on Main Street, Southbridge, MA, U.S.A. directly across from the old American Optical main plant where the work took place, and near the eyeglass sculpture. The Common is public land owned by Southbridge. On 23 January, the Southbridge Town Council granted permission to place the Milestone plaque in the Common.
The IEEE Milestone Plaque in the town commons
Aerial postcard of the AO plant (ca ).
Elias Snitzer, and colleagues developed the first working optical fiber laser and amplifier between and at the old American Optical plant in Southbridge MA. The development of the fiber laser drew from Snitzer's earlier work culminating in the first solid-state laser made of glass in plus his work in optical fibers in which he was the first to report the theory and observation of modes in an optical fiber. This ground-breaking combination of these two then-young technologies was many years ahead of its time.
Snitzer is shown (below right) with a Nd-doped glass rod in a photo from the early s. Historical images of the American Optical plant from that period are also shown below.
Elias Snitzer at American Optical with Nd-glass rod circa early 60s -003.jpg
The advent of optical fiber amplifiers was vital in building the high-speed backbone of the global telecommunications network, which carries our words, pictures and data around the planet. More recently, fiber lasers have become powerful tools in manufacturing, generating multikilowatt beams that can cut and weld materials from plastics to metals.
Other early solid-state lasers, such as the ruby laser demonstrated by Theodore Maiman in , another IEEE Milestone, were made of bulk materials. The fiber laser uniquely transmits the light it generates along a light-guiding core, concentrating its energy in a small area inside the glass, and making it easy to transfer light from a fiber laser into a passive optical fiber for transmission.
Similarly, the optical fiber amplifier acts on light propagating in a fiber's core. This became particularly important long after Spitzer's work when fiber-optic communications emerged in the s. Optical signals needed to be amplified after passing through tens of kilometers of glass and initially this required converting the signals into electronic form for amplification. Innovations by Payne and others (see below) led to the development of optical fiber amplifiers which could boost signals in the important 1.5 micron telecommunications wavelength band. The advent of optical fiber amplifiers suitable for communications enabled today's broad-band fiber networks which carry signals across continents and under oceans and provide the bandwidth necessary to transmit our words, pictures and data around the planet without interruption.
This work is documented in the following articles:
E. Snitzer and J. W. Hicks, "Optical Wave-Guide Modes in Small Glass Fibers, I Theoretical," paper TB36, Program of the Annual Meeting of the Optical Society of America, Vol 49, p. , November .
H. Osterberg, E. Snitzer, M. Polanyi, R. Hilberg, "Optical Wave-Guide Modes in Small Glass Fibers, II Experimental," paper TB37, Program of the Annual Meeting of the Optical Society of America, Vol 49, p. , November .
E. Snitzer, "Optial MASER Action of Nd+3 in a barium Crown Glass," Physical Review Letters, Volume 7, Number 12, pp. 444-446, December 15, .
Charles J. Koester and Elias Snitzer, "Amplification in a Fiber Laser," Applied Optics, Volume 3, Number 10, pp. -, October, .
The work that led to today's communications optical fiber amplifiers is documented in a number of publications including the following:Poole, S. B., Payne, D. N., and Fermann, M. E.: 'Fabrication of low-loss optical fibres containing rare-earth ions', Electron. Lett.,, 21, pp. 737-738, August .R. J. Mears, L. Reekie, I.M. Jauncey, D. N. Payne, "Low-Noise Erbium-Doped Fibre Amplifier Operating at 1.54um," Electronics Letters, Vol 23, No. 19, September .E. Desurvire, J. R. Simpson, P. C. Becker, "High-gain erbium-doped traveling-wave fiber amplifier," Optics Letters, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 888-890, November .
Fiber lasers also have proved exceptionally well suited for efficiently generating high-quality beams with powers reaching many kilowatts in strength, greatly expanding the applications of lasers in cutting, welding and other machining of materials.
Map of AO complex ()
Map
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