Physics and Design of High-Power Fiber Lasers

Course content

Rare-earth-doped fiber gain media and optical gain formation mechanisms. Absorption and emission properties of fibers. Optical fiber waveguides and modal characteristics. Continuous-wave and pulsed fiber Iaser operation. Pumping schemes and MOPA-based laser and amplifier architectures. Numerical modeling and simulation of fiber laser gain dynamics and pulse amplification. High-power fiber laser operation and power scaling concepts. Nonlinear and thermal limitations including stimulated Brillouin scattering, stimulated Raman scattering and transverse mode instability. Mitigation strategies such as spectral broadening and large-mode-area fiber designs. Beam combining techniques for power scaling. Thermal management, packaging, fiber fabrication and fusion splicing of gain fibers. Reliability considerations and applications of high-power fiber lasers in industry, science, remote sensing and defense.