High-power laser development for laser weapons

Ludewigt, K.; Liem, A.; Stuhr, U.; Jung, Markus

doi:10.1117/12.2538460

Cited by 19 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Lasers are widely used in diverse applications such as optical communication, [1,2] remote sensing, [3] biomedicine, [4] high energy density physics, [5] and directed energy. [6,7] Many of these applications require waveplates or optical retarders; however, such devices often lack the ability to withstand intense laser irradiation. In contrast to waveplates based on liquid crystalline or DOI: 10.1002/adom.202300219 polymer birefringent films, waveplates made from polished, inorganic single crystals are potentially more mechanically robust and laser damage resistant.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating the Trade‐off between Optical and Mechanical Properties during Constrained Sintering of Mesomorphic Ceramic Films

Cheng

Zhang

Chen

et al. 2023

Advanced Optical Materials

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Robust, transparent, and birefringent inorganic films are demanded for polarization control of high‐power lasers. While single crystals or films obtained via glancing angle deposition exhibit desirable optical properties and laser damage resistance, these methods are limited by cost and scalability. Mesomorphic ceramics as inorganic solids with liquid crystalline superstructure offer appealing transparency and birefringence but lack mechanical robustness due to their high porosity. Here, the effect of sintering on optical and mechanical properties of mesomorphic ceramics is evaluated. Films prepared by blade coating are sintered under varying conditions. Constrained sintering accomplished crystallite growth, densification, and morphological changes including necking as well as cracking while preserving the crystallographic orientation. The extent of sintering as a function of thermal treatment is quantified by morphology, surface area loss, and crystallite growth. Moreover, activation energies for surface diffusion and grain growth are estimated by surface area analysis and X‐ray diffraction peak narrowing, respectively. After sintering, birefringence decreases while Young's modulus and hardness improve as the film densifies. Upon partial sintering, mesomorphic ceramics retain transparency, high birefringence, and enhanced modulus. Laser‐induced damage threshold is measured as well. The reported results represent an important step toward the assembly and sintering of robust waveplates with high laser damage resistance.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating the Trade‐off between Optical and Mechanical Properties during Constrained Sintering of Mesomorphic Ceramic Films

Cheng

Zhang

Chen

et al. 2023

Advanced Optical Materials

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“…Power scaling of single aperture fiber lasers is a persistent area of research focused on increasing the maximum obtainable single mode output power. Over the past several decades, high average power fiber lasers, primarily based on 1 µm Yb-doped fiber lasers (YDFL), have revolutionized a number of scientific, defense and industrial applications [1][2][3]. Thulium-doped fiber lasers (TDFL) produce the second highest output power after YDFLs and are ideal for various applications such as nonlinear wavelength conversion and material processing where 1 µm based systems fall short [4][5][6][7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

100 W, Tunable In-band Pumped Thulium Fiber Amplifier

Richardson¹,

Cook²,

Sincore³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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We detail the design and performance of a high efficiency in-band pumped thulium fiber amplifier operating at the 100 W level. Using a novel pumping architecture based on three incoherently combined thulium fiber oscillators at 1904 nm and a seed laser tunable from 1970-1990 nm, efficient amplification is demonstrated in a high dopant concentration 25/65/250 μm thulium fiber. Here we use the 65 μm pedestal surrounding the core as a pump cladding to increase the cladding to core overlap and improve the overall pump absorption. Up to 89% slope efficiency is obtained with ~100 W output power at 1990 nm. These results indicate that in-band pumping is a viable route to circumvent the thermal limitations associated with 793 nm diode pumping and provide a pathway for development of multi-kW laser sources in the 2 μm spectral window.

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“…Our experimental results, performed with both continuous-wave (CW) excitation at a wavelength of 1064 nm and 200-ns pulses at 1550 nm, confirm that our method is effective, robust, and generally applicable to different settings. It will enable power scaling of light delivery and amplification for various applications, e.g., directed energy and long-range remote sensing [39,40,41,32]. , producing a single spot in the far-field intensity pattern at multimode fiber output (a3).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%