High power short pulse fiber laser
First Claim
1. A pulsed fiber laser outputting pulses having a duration and corresponding pulse width comprising:
- a modelocked fiber oscillator outputting optical pulses;
an amplifier optically connected to said modelocked fiber oscillator to receive said optical pulses, said amplifier comprising a gain medium that imparts gain to said optical pulses; and
a variable attenuator disposed between said modelocked fiber oscillator and said amplifier, said variable attenuator having an adjustable transmission such that said optical energy that is coupled from said modelocked fiber oscillator to said amplifier can be reduced; and
a compressor to compress the pulse to reduce the pulse width.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A pulsed laser comprises an oscillator and amplifier. An attenuator and/or pre-compressor may be disposed between the oscillator and amplifier to improve performance and possibly the quality of pulses output from the laser. Such pre-compression may be implemented with spectral filters and/or dispersive elements between the oscillator and amplifier. The pulsed laser may have a modular design comprising modular devices that may have Telcordia-graded quality and reliability. Fiber pigtails extending from the device modules can be spliced together to form laser system. In one embodiment, a laser system operating at approximately 1050 nm comprises an oscillator having a spectral bandwidth of approximately 19 nm. This oscillator signal can be manipulated to generate a pulse having a width below approximately 90 fs.
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Citations
74 Claims
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1. A pulsed fiber laser outputting pulses having a duration and corresponding pulse width comprising:
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a modelocked fiber oscillator outputting optical pulses;
an amplifier optically connected to said modelocked fiber oscillator to receive said optical pulses, said amplifier comprising a gain medium that imparts gain to said optical pulses; and
a variable attenuator disposed between said modelocked fiber oscillator and said amplifier, said variable attenuator having an adjustable transmission such that said optical energy that is coupled from said modelocked fiber oscillator to said amplifier can be reduced; and
a compressor to compress the pulse to reduce the pulse width. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method of producing compressed high power short laser pulses having an optical power of at least about 200 mW and a pulse duration of about 200 femtoseconds or less, said method comprising:
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substantially mode-locking longitudinal modes of a laser cavity to repetitively produce a laser pulse;
amplifying said laser pulse;
chirping said laser pulse thereby changing the optical frequency of said optical pulse over time;
compressing said laser pulse by propagating different optical frequency components of said laser pulse differently to produce compressed laser pulses having a shortened temporal duration; and
selectively attenuating said laser pulse prior to said amplifying of said laser pulse to further shorten said duration of said compressed laser pulses. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11)
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12. A method of manufacturing a high power short pulse fiber laser, said method comprising:
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mode-locking a fiber-based oscillator that outputs optical pulses;
optically coupling an amplifier to said fiber-based oscillator through a variable attenuator so as to feed said optical pulses from said fiber-based oscillator through said variable attenuator and to said amplifier; and
adjusting said variable attenuator based on a measurement of said optical pulses to reduce the intensity of the optical pulses delivered to said amplifier and to shorten said pulse. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A pulsed fiber laser outputting pulses having a pulse width, said pulsed fiber laser comprising:
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a modelocked fiber oscillator producing an optical output comprising a plurality of optical pulses having a pulse width and a spectral power distribution having a bandwidth;
an amplifier optically connected to said modelocked fiber amplifier for amplifying said optical pulses; and
a spectral filter disposed to receive said optical output of said modelocked fiber oscillator prior to reaching said amplifier, said spectral filter having a spectral transmission with a band edge that overlaps said spectral power distribution of said optical output of said modelocked fiber oscillator to attenuate a portion of said spectral power distribution and thereby reduce the spectral bandwidth, the pulse width of said optical pulses coupled from said mode lock fiber oscillator to said fiber amplifier thereby being reduced. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A method of producing compressed optical pulses, said method comprising:
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substantially mode-locking longitudinal modes of a fiber resonant cavity so as to produce a train of optical pulses having a corresponding spectral power distribution with a spectral bandwidth;
amplifying said optical pulses;
compressing said optical pulses to produce compressed optical pulses; and
reducing the spectral bandwidth of said spectral power distribution such that said compressed optical pulses have a shorter duration. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30)
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31. A pulsed fiber laser comprising:
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a modelocked fiber oscillator comprising a gain fiber and a pair of reflective optical elements disposed with respect to said gain fiber to form a resonant cavity, said modelocked fiber oscillator producing a train of optical pulses having an average pulse width;
an amplifier optically connected to said modelocked fiber amplifier such that said optical pulses can propagate through said amplifier, said fiber amplifier amplifying said optical pulses;
one or more optical pump sources optically connected to said modelocked fiber oscillator and said fiber amplifier to pump said fiber oscillator and fiber amplifier;
a pulse compressor optically coupled to receive said amplified optical pulses output from fiber amplifier, said pulse compressor shortening the pulse width of said optical pulses output by said fiber amplifier; and
a pre-compressor disposed in an optical path between said modelocked fiber oscillator and said fiber amplifier, said pre-compressor shortening the duration of said optical pulses introduced into said fiber amplifier such that said pulse duration of said optical pulses output by said compressor can be further shortened. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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39. A method of generating short high power optical pulses, said method comprising:
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substantially mode-locking optical modes of a laser cavity to produce an optical signal comprising a plurality of laser pulses having an average pulse width, said optical signal comprising a distribution of frequency components;
compressing said optical pulses;
amplifying said compressed optical pulses to produce amplified compressed optical pulses; and
further compressing said amplified compressed optical pulses subsequent to said amplifying using a dispersive optical element to differentiate between spectral components and introducing different phase shifts to said different spectral components. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41)
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42. A pulsed fiber laser comprising:
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a modelocked fiber oscillator outputting optical pulses;
a fiber amplifier optically connected to said modelocked fiber oscillator, said amplifier amplifying said optical pulses;
an optical pump source optically connected to said fiber amplifier;
a pulse compressor optically coupled to receive said amplified optical pulses output from fiber amplifier; and
at least one of (i) a first optical tap in said optical path between said modelocked fiber oscillator and said fiber amplifier and a first feedback loop from said first tap to control said modelocked fiber oscillator based on measurement of output from said first optical tap, and (ii) a second optical tap in said optical path between said fiber amplifier and said compressor and a second feedback loop from said second tap to control said fiber amplifier based on measurement of output from said first optical tap. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54)
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55. A pulsed light source comprising:
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a light source module comprising an optical fiber, said light source module outputting optical pulses;
an isolator module comprising an optical isolator in a housing having input and output fibers, said input fiber optically coupled to said optical fiber of said light source module, said optical isolator disposed in an optical path connecting said input and output fibers such that said optical pulses introduced into said input fiber are received by said isolator and permitted to continue along said optical path to said output coupler;
an amplifier module comprising an amplifying medium and having an optical input optically connected to said output fiber of said isolator module to amplify said optical pulses; and
and a compressor module optically coupled to said amplifier module to compress said optical pulses. - View Dependent Claims (56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74)
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Specification