Tapered fiber bundles for combining laser pumps (Invited Paper)

Headley, C.; Fishteyn, M.; Yablon, A.D.; Andrejco, M. J.; Brar, K.; Mann, J.W.; Mermelstein, Marc D.; DiGiovanni, D. J.

doi:10.1117/12.602601

Cited by 13 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…optimal combination of low insertion loss for signal and pump channels and low polarization crosstalk at high power levels. 1,2,3,4,5 In traditional tapered fiber bundles (TFBs), low-loss coupling for the signal channel is precluded by the inherent correlation between the mode field and draw-ratio of the taper. Another approach, based on tacking pretapered pump fibers to a signal fiber, allows for low loss transmission through the signal channel but results in a weakly joined structure, which is difficult to cleave and splice 6 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polarization maintaining, high-power and high-efficiency (6+1)×1 pump/signal combiner

et al. 2014

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FiberCladding (Diameter -125 pm) n3 n2 Standard NA n1 (MFD --10 pm) Secondary Core n1 -n2 < n2 -n3 -reduced MFD n1 -n2 > n2 -n3 -expanded MFD n1 -n2 = n2 -n3 -preserved MFD "Vanishing" Core Waveguide Tailored NA ABSTRACTWe have developed an all-glass, fusion spliceable polarization maintaining (6+1)× 1 pump/signal combiner for fiber lasers and amplifiers. We utilize an enhanced tapered fiber bundle technology for multimode pump channels and a vanishing core fiber for the single mode polarization maintaining large mode area (PLMA) signal channel. The signal channel of the combiner is optimized to match a double-clad PLMA fiber with 20 micron core and 400 micron glass cladding with 0.065 numerical aperture (NA). The multimode pump channels have 200 micron core and 240 micron cladding with NA of 0.22 designed to deliver high power 980 nm pump light. The same double-clad PLMA fiber is used as both the signal input channel and the combined output for the device. Polarization axes of the input and output PLMA fibers are aligned during the fusion splices to achieve polarization crosstalk below -20 dB. Utilizing this approach, we have achieved coupling loss of ~0.4 dB for the signal channel as measured from the input PLMA to the output PLMA at a wavelength of 1060 nm and coupling loss below 0.01 dB for all pump channels as determined from the measured temperature rise of the combiner package temperature as the optical pump power at 974 nm is increased up to 45 W. Low signal and pump losses result in high efficiency lasing or amplification at over a kW of pump power for high power applications where a single mode, high polarization extinction ratio output is required.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polarization maintaining, high-power and high-efficiency (6+1)×1 pump/signal combiner

et al. 2014

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“…As a key component of high power fiber lasers, the fiberbased power combiner is able to combine multiple ports of laser inputs into one output fiber [3][4][5]. Tapered fiber bundle (TFB) technology, has been proven to be one of the most effective techniques to fabricate all-fiber power combiners [6][7][8]. In 2011, Xiao et al developed a 7 × 1 TFB pumping combiner with transmission efficiency of 96.8% and output power up to 1032 W [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

19 × 1 high power pump combiner with large input core diameter

Zhang¹,

Lei²,

Li³

et al. 2021

Laser Phys.

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In this paper, we investigate a 19 × 1 tapered fiber bundle (TFB) pump combiner for high power fiber lasers theoretically and experimentally, based on the twist method. Theoretically, we analyze the influence of the taper length, taper ratio and twist angle on the performance of a 19 × 1 TFB combiner by using the beam propagation method. Then, a 19 × 1 all-fiber combiner is fabricated experimentally, with input fibers and output fiber having core/clad diameter of 220/242 μm (numerical aperture (NA) = 0.22) and 30/600 μm (NA = 0.06/0.46) respectively. The transmission efficiency of each port is higher than 98.6% and the average efficiency of all 19 ports is 99.3%. The combiner achieved an output power of 1.5 kW with transmission efficiency of 99.3% when tested with four ports of 976 nm laser diode. To our best knowledge, this is the first time that 220/242 μm (NA = 0.22) multimode fibers act as the pump fibers of a 19 × 1 end-pumping combiner.

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“…Pumping coupler technology includes side-pumping coupler technology and end-pumping coupler technology by tapered fused bundle (TFB) [3,4] . Although the configuration of end-pumping coupler technology is simple, end-pumping scheme has the following disadvantages: increasing the numerical aperture (NA) of the pump light, changing the mode field diameter (MFD) of the signal fiber, the restricted fiber length, uneven gain distribution and serious thermal effects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A fused side-pumping optical fiber coupler based on twisting

Chang

Zhou

et al. 2014

SPIE Proceedings

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Pumping coupler technology is one of the critical technologies for high power laser and amplifier. Side-pumping technology can couple pumping beam into inner cladding of the double-clad fiber through the side of the fiber.Compared to the end-pumping technology by tapered fused bundle (TFB) , it has many superiorities. That the signal fiber was not disconnected guarantees high transmission efficiency, providing the possibility of transmitting a high power signal. Additionally, the pump light is coupled into the double-cladding fiber all along the coupler's body (~ 5-10 cm long), which reduces the thermal effects caused by leakage of pumping light, resulting in high pump power handling capabilities. For the realization of reliable, rugged and efficient high power fiber amplifiers and fiber laser systems, a novel kind of fused side-pumping coupler based on twisting is developed. The complete simulations were carried out for the process of side-pumping. From detailed information about simulations, we found that the the pump efficiencies, one of the vital parameters of pumping coupler, have a significant influence with coupling length, the numerical aperture (NA) and taper ratio of pump fiber. However, the diversification of the parameters drops the high transmission efficiency barely. Optimized the parameters in the simulations, the pump and signal coupling efficiencies are 97.3% and 99.4%, respectively. Based on theoretical analysis, the side-pumping coupler was demonstrated at the the pump and signal coupling efficiencies are 91.2% and 98.4%, respectively. This fiber coupler can be implemented in almost any fiber laser or amplifier architecture.

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Tapered fiber bundles for combining laser pumps (Invited Paper)

Cited by 13 publications

References 13 publications

Polarization maintaining, high-power and high-efficiency (6+1)×1 pump/signal combiner

Polarization maintaining, high-power and high-efficiency (6+1)×1 pump/signal combiner

19 × 1 high power pump combiner with large input core diameter

A fused side-pumping optical fiber coupler based on twisting

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