Fiber laser red-green-blue (RGB) light source

• US 7,489,437 B1
• Filed: 12/05/2007
• Issued: 02/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Corning Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Corning Incorporated
• Inventors: Bauco, Anthony Sebastian
• Primary Examiner(s): Sanghavi; Hemang
• Application Number:
  US11/999,322
• Time in Patent Office: 433 Days
• Field of Search: 359326-332, 372 21- 23, 372/6
• US Class Current: 359/326
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/3532 Arrangements of plural nonlinear devices for generating multi-colour light beams, e.g. arrangements of SHG, SFG, OPO devices for generating RGB light beams
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/3558 Poled materials, e.g. with periodic poling; Fabrication of domain inverted structures, e.g. for quasi-phase-matching [QPM]
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/0092 Nonlinear frequency conversion, e.g. second harmonic generation [SHG] or sum- or difference-frequency generation outside the laser cavity nonlinear frequency conversion per se G02F1/35
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/06754 Fibre amplifiers H01S3/06708 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/2308 Amplifier arrangements, e.g. MOPA

Abstract

An RGB light source that uses an optical fiber laser to generate a near-infrared (NIR) output light beam, and a wavelength conversion system that receives the output NIR light beam and forms therefrom red, green and blue light beams. The fiber laser includes multiple stages, wherein the first stage includes a solid-state laser to generate an initial NIR light beam. One or more subsequent stages operate to amplify the NIR light beam to form a relatively high-average-power output NIR light beam. Only light from the fiber laser is used to generate the red, green and blue-wavelength output light beams. The wavelength conversion system includes three or fewer non-linear optical (NLO) units. A color display that utilizes the RGB light source is also disclosed.

Claims

1. A red-green-blue (RGB) light source, comprising:

an optical fiber laser configured to emit a near-infrared (NIR) light beam having a single NIR wavelength; and

a wavelength conversion system optically coupled to the optical fiber laser and having three or fewer non-linear optical (NLO) crystals, wherein the wavelength conversion system is configured to receive the single-wavelength NIR light beam and create therefrom red-, green- and blue-wavelength light beams BR, BG and BB using only light originating from the single-wavelength NIR light beam.

2. The RGB light source of claim 1, wherein the fiber laser includes:

a first stage that includes either a single gain-switched semiconductor laser or a single mode-locked fiber laser, wherein said first stage generates an output beam having light pulses with the single NIR wavelength; and

one or more additional stages optically coupled in sequence to the first stage and that include a optical fiber amplifier configured to amplify the single-wavelength NIR light pulses in said first stage output beam.

3. The RGB light source of claim 2, wherein

the first stage output beam NIR wavelength is about 1036 nm;

and

the one or more additional stages include a second stage and a third stage, wherein the second and third stages include respective gain-doped optical fiber sections pumped with pump light of about 976 nm.

4. The RGB light source of claim 3, wherein the third stage includes an optical system configured to receive and focus divergent NIR light from the optical fiber section in the third stage.

5. The RGB light source of claim 2, wherein at least one of the stages includes first and second pump light sources having different polarizations.

6. The RGB light source of claim 2, wherein at least one of the stages includes a double-clad gain-doped optical fiber section.

7. The RGB light source of claim 1, wherein the wavelength conversion system comprises:

a first NLO unit configured to perform second harmonic generation (SHG) on the single-wavelength NIR beam and form therefrom the green-wavelength light beam BG;

a second NLO unit configured to receive at least a portion of light beam BG and form therefrom the red-wavelength light beam BR and a mid-infrared (MIR) wavelength light beam BM; and

a third NLO unit configured to receive at least a portion of light beam BM and at least a portion of light beam BG and form therefrom the blue-wavelength light beam BB.

8. The RGB light source of claim 7, wherein:

the second NLO unit includes an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) resonant on the MIR wavelength.

9. The RGB light source of claim 1, wherein the wavelength conversion unit consists of a single optical parametric oscillator (OPO) that includes a periodically poled crystal arranged between input and output end-mirrors, wherein the crystal has a poling pattern that, in combination with the end-mirrors, results in the output of the red-, green- and blue-wavelength light beams BR, BG and BB.

10. The RGB light source of claim 1, wherein the wavelength conversion unit comprises:

a first NLO unit configured to perform second harmonic generation (SHG) on the single-wavelength NIR beam and form therefrom the green-wavelength light beam BG; and

a second NLO unit configured to receive at least a portion of light beam BG and perform optical parametric oscillation (OPO) thereon to form the red-wavelength light beam BR and a mid-infrared (MIR) light beam BM, and also perform sum-frequency mixing (SFM) on a portion of the red light beam BR and at least a portion of the MIR light beam BM to form the blue light beam BB.

11. A color display apparatus, comprising:

the RGB light source of claim 1;

an optical system adapted to receive and process the red-, green- and blue-wavelength light beams from the RGB light source and form therefrom a display light beam; and

a display screen adapted to receive the display light beam and form therefrom a color display image.

12. A red-green-blue (RGB) light source, comprising:

an optical fiber laser configured to output a single-wavelength near-infrared (NIR) output light beam BN; and

a wavelength conversion system optically coupled to the fiber laser and having;

i) a first non-linear-optics (NLO) unit adapted to receive the single-wavelength NIR light beam BN and perform second harmonic generation (SHG) thereon so as to create a green-wavelength light beam BG;

ii) a second NLO unit configured to receive at least a portion of light beam BG and create therefrom a red-wavelength light beam BR and a mid-infrared (MIR) light beam BM; and

iii) a third NLO unit configured to receive at least a portion of light beam BG and at least a portion of light beam BM and form therefrom a blue-wavelength light beam BB.

13. The RGB light source of claim 12, further including an optical system configured relative to the first, second and third NLO units so as to provide an optical path over which only light originating from the single-wavelength NIR output beam BN is used to form the red-, green- and blue-wavelength light beams BR, BG and BB.

14. The RGB light source of claim 12, wherein the second NLO unit includes an optical parametric oscillator configured to resonate on the MIR wavelength so as to produce the MIR light beam BM.

15. The RGB light source of claim 12, wherein the fiber laser comprises a first stage that serves as a master oscillator that generates an initial single-wavelength NIR light beam, and further including at least one additional stage that includes an optical fiber amplifier adapted to amplify the initial single-wavelength NIR light beam to generate the single-wavelength output NIR light beam BN.

16. A color display apparatus, comprising:

the RGB light source of claim 12;

an optical system adapted to receive and process the red-, green- and blue-wavelength light beams from the RGB light source and form therefrom a display light beam; and

a display screen adapted to receive the display light beam and form therefrom a color display image.

17. A method of producing red wavelength, green wavelength and blue wavelength light beams BR, BG and BB, comprising:

forming a near-infrared (NIR) single-wavelength light beam BN using an optical fiber laser; and

converting light from the single-wavelength NIR light beam to the red, green and blue light beams BR, BG and BB using no more than three non-linear crystals and using only light originating from the single-wavelength NIR light beam BN.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein forming the single-wavelength NIR light beam BN includes:

generating an initial single-wavelength NIR light beam in a first stage of the optical fiber laser using a single NIR-wavelength laser; and

amplifying the initial single-wavelength NIR light beam using at least one subsequent amplifying stage of the optical fiber laser.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein said converting includes passing the single-wavelength NIR light beam through a single optical parametric oscillator having a periodically poled crystal arranged between input and output end-mirrors.

20. The method of claim 17, further including:

forming a display beam from light beams BR, BG and BB; and

providing the display beam to a display screen adapted to form a color display image from the display beam.