• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.521-549
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• 2022

Fiber lasers have made remarkable progress over the past three decades, and they now serve far-reaching applications and have even become indispensable in many technology sectors. As there is an insatiable appetite for improved performance, whether relating to enhanced spatio-temporal stability, spectral and noise characteristics, or ever-higher power and brightness, thermal management in these systems becomes increasingly critical. Active convective cooling, such as through flowing water, while highly effective, has its own set of drawbacks and limitations. To overcome them, other synergistic approaches are being adopted that mitigate the sources of heating at their roots, including the quantum defect, concentration quenching, and impurity absorption. Here, these optical methods for thermal management are briefly reviewed and discussed. Their main philosophy is to carefully select both the lasing and pumping wavelengths to moderate, and sometimes reverse, the amount of heat that is generated inside the laser gain medium. First, the sources of heating in fiber lasers are discussed and placed in the context of modern fiber fabrication methods. Next, common methods to measure the temperature of active fibers during laser operation are outlined. Approaches to reduce the quantum defect, including tandem-pumped and short-wavelength lasers, are then reviewed. Finally, newer approaches that annihilate phonons and actually cool the fiber laser below ambient, including radiation-balanced and excitation-balanced fiber lasers, are examined. These solutions, and others yet undetermined, especially the latter, may prove to be a driving force behind a next generation of ultra-high-power and/or ultra-stable laser systems.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.865-872
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• 2017

For more than 10 years, the laser process has been studied for dismantling work; however, relatively few research works have addressed the effect of high-power fiber laser cutting for thick sections. Since in the nuclear sector, a significant quantity of thick material is required to be cut, this study aims to improve the reliability of laser cutting for such work and indicates guidelines to optimize the cutting procedure, in particular, nozzle combinations (standoff distance and focus position), to minimize waste material. The results obtained show the performance levels that can be reached with 10 kW fiber lasers, using which it is possible to obtain narrower kerfs than those found in published results obtained with other lasers. Nonetheless, fiber lasers appear to show the same effects as those of $CO_2$ and ND:YAG lasers. Thus, the main factor that affects the kerf width is the focal position, which means that minimum laser spot diameters are advised for smaller kerf widths.

• Proceedings of the Optical Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.07a
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• pp.515-516
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• 2006

We have demonstrated three-wavelength Raman fiber lasers using Ge-codoped fiber with 7-pairs of fiber bragg gratings. A slope efficiency of 18.4 % and an total output power of 1.65 W were achieved.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.64-73
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• 1998

We have theoretically analyzed and experimentally observed the effects of wavelength dependent birefringence inside a laser cavity on the output characteristics of fiber lasers with a figure eight geometry. The spectral and polarization characteristics of fiber lasers are found to be very susceptible to the resultant birefringence composed of the intrinsically existing wavelength dependent birefringence and the externally induced birefringences inside the fiber. For the variation of twist-induced birefringence inside the nonlinear amplifying loop mirror, the laser output power and center wave-length of continuous wave lasers change periodically, but the polarization characteristics remains nearly unchanged. The changes of the birefringence inside the linear loop has little effect on the spectral characteristics but changes the polarization properties such as the polarization direction.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.117-129
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• 2013

We briefly review the recent progress in passively mode-locked fiber lasers (PMLFLs) based on semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs) and discuss the detailed characterization of a SESAM-based, passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber (EDF) laser operating in the 1.5-${\mu}m$ spectral range for various configurations. A simple and compact design of the laser cavity enables the PMLFL to generate either femtosecond or wavelength-tunable picosecond pulses with high stability as the intra-cavity filtering method is altered. All the cavities investigated in our experiments present self-starting, continuous-wave mode-locking with no Q-switching instabilities. The excellent stability of the source eventually enables the wavelength-tunable PMLFL to be used as a master oscillator for a power-amplifier source based on a large-core EDF, generating picosecond pulses of >10-kW peak power and >100-nJ pulse energy.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.108-116
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• 2002

Lasing modes of laser-diode-pumped fiber grating lasers are analyzed by coupled-mode theory. First, a power series solution of the coupled-mode equations is derived under the assumption of an exponentially-decreasing longitudinal modal gain profile for a laser-diode-pumped grating section, followed by determination of the transfer matrix for such a section. Based on these results, an eigenvalue equation for oscillation is then derived and solved numerically for the lasing modes of uniform and phase-shifted fiber grating lasers. Comparisons made with the uniform-gain results indicate that, surprisingly, the lasing mode characteristics are not as significantly altered as might be expected in most cases, even for a highly nonuniform gain profile. In the case of a phase-shifted grating, the phase-shift position appears to have a much greater impact on determining the threshold gain, the modal field distribution, and the front-to-back output power ratio.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.107-113
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• 1990

Characteristics and applications of three major types of lasers are discussed. They are chemical-metabolic, thermal destructive, and nonthermal mechanical lasers. The thermal destructive lasers ($CO_2$, Argon, and Nd:YAG) are especially explained in detail with regard to energy density, wavelength, fluence, stage of thermal destruction, and advantages of laser surgery. Excimer and Q-swiched lasers are discussed as nonthermal mechanical ones. Delivery system, optical fiber and articulated arm, is also discussed. Finally, recent advancements of medical laser are included in the conclusion.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.1 no.5
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• pp.525-528
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• 2017

High-energy, high-power, quasi-continuous wave (QCW) operation of double-clad Yb fiber lasers incorporating an incoherent signal combiner is reported. We constructed four efficient, high-power Yb fiber lasers, each of which produced rectangular pulses at 1080 nm with a pulse energy greater than 15 J, and a pulse duration of 10 ms at a repetition rate of 10 Hz, corresponding to an average power of over 150 W and a peak power of over 1.5 kW for ~200 W of incident pump power at 915 nm. These laser outputs were combined by a homemade incoherent fiber signal combiner with low loss, yielding a maximum peak power of ~6.0 kW in a beam with $M^2{\approx}12.5$. The detailed laser characteristics and prospects for further power scaling in QCW operation are discussed.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.33-36
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• 2009

Laser ablation with femtosecond lasers is highly promising for microfabrication of materials. Also, the high peak power of femtosecond lasers could induce a multiphoton absorption to ablate transparent materials. Similar results have also been were obtained in the case of optical fibers. In this paper, we present our experimental results of femtosecond laser microstructuring of optical fiber and its applications to microelectronic components and fiber optic devices. Finally, we directly produced micro holes with femtosecond laser pulses in a single step by moving an optical fiber in a preprogrammed structure. When water was introduced into a hole drilled from the bottom surface of the optical fiber, the effects of blocking and redeposition of ablated material were greatly reduced and the aspect ratio of the depth of the hole was increased. We have presented circular and rectangular-shaped holes in optical fiber.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2013.05a
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• pp.727-728
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• 2013