High-power fiber laser technology for wavelength conversion

Abstract

We review and discuss the recent dramatic advances in high-power laser technology and its applications to wavelength conversion. SUMMARYOver the last decade fiber laser technology has made remarkable advances in a multitude of regimes, including continuous-wave and pulsed regimes for various gain materials. In particular, fiber lasers based on rare-earth materials show outstanding performances in terms of efficiency and power scalability, so that they have frequently been being used as gain media for high-power laser applications [1-10]. In particular, ytterbium (~1.1 μm), neodymium (~0.9, ~1.1, and ~1.3 μm), erbium (~1.5 μm), and thulium (~2 μm) are among the most efficient gain materials used for high-power laser applications.