High performance fiber lasers

Abstract

Fiber lasers are among the best-used laser techniques in the recent decades. It has found its various applications in telecommunication, military and promisingly in the manufacturing industry. High power fiber laser (HPFL), especially, due to its inherited good beam quality, high quantum efficiency, good thermal performance as well as the outstanding output power; it is now an emerging technique in the field of surface processing such as laser marking. This FYP project first studied the important concepts and development of laser and HPFL. Then it carried the topic deep down to understanding the modeling of laser and subsequently fiber laser using the coupled rate equation and power calculation. After understanding the mechanics behind, experiments were carried out for handson practice on HPFL construction with different setups. After being familiar with fiber laser hands-on operations, focus was directed to methods of power scaling. Besides documenting the progress of this project as above, this report also discusses on further research directions for HPFL, and proposed certain improvements.