Glass large-core optical fibers
First Claim
1. A fiber optic amplifier system comprising:
- an optical pulse source providing optical pulses having a nearly diffraction limited input spatial profile;
an optical pump source; and
a fiber comprising,a first cladding region comprising a first cladding material having a first index of refraction, n1;
cladding features disposed in said first cladding region, said cladding features comprising a second cladding material having a second index of refraction, n2, wherein n2 is less than n1, and wherein the cladding features have a dimension d and a center-to-center spacing Λ
, and a ratio d/Λ
is in a range from 0.3 to 0.9;
a core region at least partially surrounded by said cladding features, said first cladding region and said cladding features configured such that said core region propagates at least one lower order mode having a wavelength, while limiting propagation of at least one higher order mode having the wavelength by providing said at least one higher order mode with a higher loss than the at least one lower order mode at the wavelength, wherein at least a portion of said core region is rare-earth doped, anda pump cladding configured to receive pump energy from said optical pump source,said fiber configured to receive said pulses and amplify said pulses such that the fiber optic amplifier system is configured to produce output pulses having nearly diffraction limited output spatial profiles and at least one output pulse having energy in a range from 10 μ
J to 10 mJ.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Embodiments of optical fiber may include cladding features that include a material (e.g., fluorine-doped silica glass) that may produce a very low relative refractive index difference with respect to cladding material in which the cladding features are disposed. This relative refractive index difference may be characterized by (n1-n2)/n1, where n1 is the index of refraction of the cladding material in which the cladding features are included, and n2 is the index of refraction of the cladding features. In certain embodiments, the relative refractive index difference may be less than about 4.5×10−3. In various embodiments, the configuration of the cladding features including, for example, the size and spacing of the cladding features, can be selected to provide for confinement of the fundamental mode yet leakage for the second mode and higher modes, which may provide mode filtering, single mode propagation, and/or low bend loss.
143 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A fiber optic amplifier system comprising:
-
an optical pulse source providing optical pulses having a nearly diffraction limited input spatial profile; an optical pump source; and a fiber comprising, a first cladding region comprising a first cladding material having a first index of refraction, n1; cladding features disposed in said first cladding region, said cladding features comprising a second cladding material having a second index of refraction, n2, wherein n2 is less than n1, and wherein the cladding features have a dimension d and a center-to-center spacing Λ
, and a ratio d/Λ
is in a range from 0.3 to 0.9;a core region at least partially surrounded by said cladding features, said first cladding region and said cladding features configured such that said core region propagates at least one lower order mode having a wavelength, while limiting propagation of at least one higher order mode having the wavelength by providing said at least one higher order mode with a higher loss than the at least one lower order mode at the wavelength, wherein at least a portion of said core region is rare-earth doped, and a pump cladding configured to receive pump energy from said optical pump source, said fiber configured to receive said pulses and amplify said pulses such that the fiber optic amplifier system is configured to produce output pulses having nearly diffraction limited output spatial profiles and at least one output pulse having energy in a range from 10 μ
J to 10 mJ. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification