Delivery of 10-MW Nd:YAG laser pulses by large-core optical fibers: dependence of the laser-intensity profile on beam propagation

A large-core multimode optical fiber of a few meters length is studied as a 10-MW beam delivery system for a 15-ns pulsed Nd:YAG laser. A laser-to-fiber vacuum coupler is used to inhibit air breakdown and reduce the probability of dielectric breakdown on the fiber front surface. Laser-induced damage inside the fiber core is observed behind the fiber front surface. An explanation based on a high power density is illustrated by a ray trace. Damaged spots and measurements of fiber output energies are reported for two laser beam distributions: a flat-hat type and a near-Gaussian type. Experiments have been performed to deliver a 100-pulse mean energy between 100 and 230 mJ without catastrophic damage.     

Resonantly pumped 1.645 μm single longitudinal mode Er:YAG laser with intracavity etalons

We report on a 1.645 μm single longitudinal mode Er:YAG laser that was resonantly pumped by a 1.532 μm fiber laser, using intracavity etalons to generate single longitudinal mode operation. We obtained 0.749 W single longitudinal mode output power at 1.645 μm from an Er:YAG laser with two intracavity etalons. The M²-factors of the Er:YAG laser were 1.041 and 1.068 in the x and y directions, respectively.     

Plastic bending of sapphire fibers for infrared sensing and power-delivery applications

Sapphire fibers with diameters of 325-850 mum were plastically bent by CO(2) laser beams with typical bending radii as small as 2.8 mm. The additional optical loss caused by a single bend was less than 0.1 dB (at 900 nm), the damage threshold of the bent fibers was higher than 150 MW/cm(2) for Nd:YAG laser pulses, and the high mechanical strength of the bending area was also proved. Several successful applications of bent sapphire fibers have shown that plastically bent sapphire fibers are promising for use in IR sensing and power-delivery applications.     

Optical properties of single-crystal sapphire fibers

Single-crystal sapphire fibers have been grown with the laser-heated pedestal-growth method with losses as low as 0.3 dB /m at 2.94 ?m. With the incorporation of a computer-controlled feedback system, fibers have been grown with less than +/-0.5 % diameter variation, or +/-1.5 ?m for a 300- ?m fiber. The losses in these fibers have been reduced further through a postgrowth anneal at 1000 degrees C in air, from 5.4 to 1.5 dB /m at 543 nm and from 0.4 -0.3 dB /m at 2.94 ?m. These fibers delivered 4.7 W at 10 Hz of Er:YAG laser power.     

Output power enhancement of a palmtop terahertz-wave parametric generator

Broadband terahertz (THz) waves were generated by optical parametric processes based on laser light scattering from the polariton mode of a nonlinear crystal. By using the parametric oscillation of a MgO-doped LiNbO3 crystal pumped by a nanosecond Q-switched Nd:YAG laser, we have realized a broadband, high-energy and compact THz-wave source. We report the development of a THz-wave parametric generator (TPG) using a small pump source with a short pulse width and a top-hat beam profile. These characteristics of the pump beam permit high-intensity pumping especially close to the output surface of the THz wave without thermal damage to the crystal surface. We also calculated the outcoupled THz wave for beams with two different intensity profiles: a top-hat beam (in this experiment) and a Gaussian beam (previously reported). The result shows the mechanism of the output energy and/or power enhancement.     

Observation of spectral broadening caused by self-phase modulation in highly multimode optical fiber

We observed spectral broadening caused by self-phase modulation in 400- and 600-mum core diameter fibers using amplified, Q-switched, Nd:YAG laser pulses with peak powers to 150 kW. The degree of spectral broadening was not dependent linearly on the fiber length as in single-mode fibers because of the more complicated modal evolution in highly multimode fiber. Furthermore, even slight stress near the input end of the fiber reduced the observed broadening. The results have significant implications for the delivery of high-peak-power laser beams through optical fiber with high-output beam quality for industrial applications.     

High-Power As-S Glass Fiber Delivery Instrument for Pulse YAG:Er Laser Radiation

A 3-mum laser-generation delivery instrument that uses chalcogenide fibers with a unique damage threshold and conical radiation input has been developed for medical applications. A new purification and synthesis scheme has been elaborated that yields fibers with a heterophase inclusion content of less than 10(4) cm(-3). In such fibers the damage threshold is 350 J/cm(2) at an average power density of 0.5 kW/cm(2) in a YAG:Er laser operating in the repetitive pulse free-running regime with a pulse duration of 350 ms. 1-3 x 10(4) laser pulses were transmitted at a repetition rate of 3 Hz and an average output power of 1 W under the condition of a 15% decrease in the output power.     

Optical properties of end-sealed hollow fibers

We propose sealing techniques for medical hollow fibers to protect the inner surface of fibers from debris or water that scatters from targets. First, hollow fibers are sealed with a film of polymer that is easily formed by use of a dipping technique. The transmission loss of 20-microm-thick sealing film was 0.2 dB for Er:YAG laser light, and the maximum energy that is available for the film was 180 mJ. Second, a sealed glass cap was applied to the output end of hollow fiber. The silica-glass cap with a wall thickness of 400 microm shows a transmission loss of 0.5 dB and was not damaged by radiation of 400-mJ energy pulses.     

Measuring temperature profiles in high-power optical fiber components

We demonstrate a new method for measuring changes in temperature distribution caused by coupling a high-power laser beam into an optical fiber and by splicing two fibers. The measurement technique is based on interrogating a fiber Bragg grating by using low-coherence spectral interferometry. A large temperature change is found owing to coupling of a high-power laser into a multimode fiber and to splicing of two multimode fibers. Measurement of the temperature profile rather than the average temperature along the grating allows study of the cause of fiber heating. The new measurement technique enables us to monitor in real time the temperature profile in a fiber without the affecting system operation, and it might be important for developing and improving the reliability of high-power fiber components.     

Two-wavelength, passive self-injection-controlled operation of diode-pumped cw Yb-doped crystal lasers

We demonstrate and investigate a peculiar mode of cw Yb3+-doped crystal laser operation when two emissions, at two independently tunable wavelengths, are simultaneously produced. Both emissions are generated from a single pumped volume and take place in either a single beam or spatially separated beams. The laser employs original two-channel cavities that use a passive self-injection-locking (PSIL) control to reduce intracavity loss. The advantages of the application of the PSIL technique and some limitations are shown. The conditions for two-wavelength multimode operation of the cw quasi-three-level diode-pumped Yb3+ lasers and the peculiarity of such an operation are carried out both theoretically and experimentally. The results reported are based on the example of a Yb3+:GGG laser but similar results are also obtained with a Yb3+:YAG laser. The laser operates in the 1023-1033-nm (1030-1040-nm) range with a total output power of 0.4 W. A two-wavelength, single longitudinal mode generation is also obtained.     

Photoelastic lensing effect in Ti:sapphire crystal pumped by high-energy pulses

We have built a setup with high temporal resolution to measure the very fast photoelastic lensing effect, which is on the scale of microseconds in a Ti:sapphire crystal pumped by very strong laser pulses (up to 5 J/cm2). The experimental results measured by this method and the real multimode beam profile taken by a CCD camera are applied to a three-dimensional crystal model to calculate one of the photoelastic constants of Ti:sapphire crystal, which is found to be p31=-0.03±0.01. This value is helpful to evaluate the photoelastic lensing effect in Ti:sapphire crystal for a laser beam polarized along the c axis, commonly used for laser amplification.     

Preparation of Fiber Optics for the Delivery of High-Energy High-Beam-Quality Nd:YAG Laser Pulses

Recent improvements in design have made it possible to build Nd:YAG lasers with both high pulse energy and high beam quality. These lasers are particularly suited for percussion drilling of holes of as much as 1-mm diameter thick (a few millimeters) metal parts. An example application is the production of cooling holes in aeroengine components for which 1-ms duration, 30-J energy laser pulses produce holes of sufficient quality much more efficiently than with a laser trepanning process. Fiber optic delivery of the laser beam would be advantageous, particularly when one is processing complex three-dimensional structures. However, lasers for percussion drilling are available only with conventional bulk-optic beam delivery because of laser-induced damage problems with the small-diameter (approximately 200-400-mum) fibers that would be required for preserving necessary beam quality. We report measurements of beam degradation in step-index optical fibers with an input beam quality corresponding to an M(2) of 22. We then show that the laser-induced damage threshold of 400-mum core-diameter optical fibers can be increased significantly by a CO(2) laser treatment step following the mechanical polishing routine. This increase in laser-induced damage threshold is sufficient to propagate 25-J, 1-ms laser pulses with a 400-mum core-diameter optical fiber and an output M(2) of 31.     

Mode coupling and output beam quality of 100-400 μm core silica fibers

Propagation and mode coupling within relatively short (～1-10?m) large core, nominally multimode, fibers are of interest in a number of applications. In this research, we have studied the output beam quality and mode coupling in various fibers with core diameters of 100-400?μm and lengths of 2?m. Output beam quality (M2) and mode-coupling coefficients (D) have been studied for different clad dimensions, numerical apertures, and wavelengths. The mode-coupling coefficients have been determined based on modal power diffusion considerations. The results show that D scales approximately as the inverse square of the clad dimension and inverse square root of the wavelength. Output from a 2?m length fiber of 100?μm core and 660?μm clad fiber is close to single mode (M2=1.6), while output from a 200?μm core and 745?μm clad fiber also has high beam quality.     

Erbium:YAG laser lithotripsy by use of a flexible hollow waveguide with an end-scaling cap

An Er:YAG laser light delivery system composed of a polymer-coated silver hollow waveguide and a quartz sealing cap has been developed for calculus fragmentation. Sealing caps with various distal-end geometries were fabricated, and the focusing effects of these caps for Er:YAG laser light were measured both in air and in water. Owing to the high power capability of the quartz a beam of sealing caps, Er:YAG laser light with an output energy of 200 mJ and a repetition rate of 10 Hz was successfully transmitted in saline solution by use of the system. Calculus fragmentation experiments conducted in vitro showed that the delivery system is suitable for medical applications in lithotripsy. We also found that the cap with a focusing effect is more effective in cutting calculi. The deterioration of the sealing caps after calculus fragmentation is also discussed.     

Multimode laser emission from dye doped polymer optical fiber

Multimode laser emission is observed in a polymer optical fiber doped with a mixture of Rhodamine 6G (Rh 6G) and Rhodamine B (Rh B) dyes. Tuning of laser emission is achieved by using the mixture of dyes due to the energy transfer occurring from donor molecule (Rh 6G) to acceptor molecule (Rh B). The dye doped poly(methyl methacrylate)-based polymer optical fiber is pumped axially at one end of the fiber using a 532 nm pulsed laser beam from a Nd:YAG laser and the fluorescence emission is collected from the other end. At low pump energy levels, fluorescence emission is observed. When the energy is increased beyond a threshold value, laser emission occurs with a multimode structure. The optical feedback for the gain medium is provided by the cylindrical surface of the optical fiber, which acts as a cavity. This fact is confirmed by the mode spacing dependence on the diameter of the fiber.     

Fabrication of a polymer-coated silver hollow optical fiber with high performance

The techniques for fabricating a hollow optical fiber with an inner silver layer and a cyclic olefin polymer (COP) layer have been improved to reduce the surface roughness of these two layers. The loss spectrum was thereby drastically reduced over a wide wavelength range, from visible to near infrared. Optimization of the COP layer thickness resulted in low loss simultaneously at several key laser wavelengths. Infrared hollow fiber with low loss was developed for Er:YAG and Nd:YAG lasers. It can also deliver green and red pilot beams with low loss. Use of this fiber in therapeutic and pilot lasers should prove useful for research and development in laser medicine.     

Sequence lasing in a gain-switched Yb3+,Er(3+)-doped silica double-clad fiber laser

Experimental results relating to the gain-switched operation of a double-clad Yb3+,Er(3+)-doped silica fiber laser that is pulse pumped with the output from a flash-lamp-pumped Ti:sapphire laser are presented. For all the configurations of the fiber laser that we studied, the 2F5/2-->2F7/2 laser transition of the Yb3+ ion lased prior to laser emission from the 4I13/2-->4I15/2 transition of the Er3+ ion. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported operation of sequence lasing in the Yb3+,Er(3+)-codoped system. This succession of laser pulses deduced from the measurements of this investigation is a consequence of both the short intense pump pulse and the short 900-nm wavelength of the pump that does not overlap with any important excited-state absorption transitions. We believe that the predominant interionic interaction during the course of the pump pulse is the double-energy transfer to the Er3+ ion acting twice from the 2F5/2 energy level of the Yb3+ donor ion. A maximum total output of 1.65 mJ is obtained (1.38 mJ from the 2F5/2-->2F7/2 transition of Yb3+ and 0.27 mJ from the 4I13/2-->4I15/2 transition of Er3+) from a nonoptimized configuration of the fiber laser. The wavelength of the output from the fiber laser was measured to vary approximately linearly with fiber length from 1040 to 1046 nm for the Yb(3+)-based laser and 1535 to 1541 nm for the Er(3+)-based laser.     

Liquid-core light guides for near-infrared applications

The strong absorption of tissue water is responsible for the low ablation threshold for biological tissues at the Er:YAG and Er:YSGG laser wavelengths. These lasers are therefore considered to be promising tools for medical treatments. As the existing transmission systems are still unsatisfactory, three types of liquid-filled light guides are investigated here as alternatives to conventional near-IR fibers. In addition to mechanical advantages, the minimum attenuation is below 3 dB/m, and losses at bending radii down to 20 mm are negligible. The maximum output energy densities of 14.2 J/cm(2) (free-running Er:YAG) or power densities of 7 MW/cm(2) (Q-switched Er:YAG) are sufficient for soft-tissue ablation. When the liquid was circulated, much higher energy densities, exceeding the hard-tissue ablation threshold, were achieved. These properties make liquid-core light guides promising delivery systems for many near-IR applications, including medical ones.     

Performance of Nd:YAG lasers in coupled generalized self-filtering and positive-branch unstable resonators

A new optical resonator based on the combination of a generalized self-filtering unstable resonator (GSFUR) and a positive-branch unstable resonator (PBUR) in a three-mirror scheme is reported. It is shown both theoretically and experimentally that a nearly diffraction-limited Gaussian-output laser beam with a large mode volume can be obtained with this cavity design. The laser cavity is particularly interesting for use in high-threshold pumped gain media and eliminates some disadvantages of the SFUR and GSFUR designs. This resonator, with an effective magnification of -6.16, was applied to a pulsed Nd:YAG laser in free-running and in Q-switched modes of operation. The output energy was ~70 mJ, 5.5 times greater than when a single GSFUR design was used. The output beam had a pulse duration of ~30 ns in the Q-switched mode of operation and a beam divergence of 0.26 mrad. The required relations for the GSFUR-PBUR optical design and the output energy were derived and verified experimentally.     

Fiber-optic transmission of stretched pulses from a Q-switched ruby laser

Fiber-optic transmission of Q-switched ruby laser pulses is limited by fiber damage owing to the high laser-beam intensities. Pulse stretching with a semiconductor-based control circuit for the Pockels cell of the ruby laser to reduce the peak intensities is described. Pulses with durations from 200 ns to 1 μs and a coherence length of ~3 m were generated. These pulses were coupled into multimode optical fibers to investigate the transmission characteristics and the limits of transmittable pulse energies. Stretched pulses can be transmitted in quartz fibers with a 600-μm core diameter to pulse energies of 300 mJ, which is an increase by a factor of 4 compared with standard Q-switched pulses. It is expected that beam guiding of ruby laser pulses by fiber optics will significantly facilitate the use of holographic interferometry in technical applications such as vibration analysis.