(DURIP) MULTI-KW YB FIBER LASER ENABLEMENT SYSTEM (MYLES)
Abstract
The BRI 5 grant to the University of Central Florida is a major investment in the development of high power fiber lasers by AFOSR, supporting activities in directed energy and defense applications of lasers. This project has four principal objectives, (i) determination of the cause and mitigation of the transverse mode instability that currently is impedes the progress in high power fiber lasers, (ii) demonstrating kilowatt powers in ytterbium fiber lasers with single mode beam quality and high reliability, (iii) advancing the development of high power mid-IR 2 ?m wavelength thulium fiber lasers, and (iv) exploring the limits to high powers in Raman fiber lasers. The UCF team has made significant progress on each of these directions. It now has a firm understanding of the cause of the transverse mode instability, though it has not yet experimentally observed it at the kW-level. It has achieved kilowatt powers with Yb-fiber lasers at 1?m, has developed a high power tunable Tm fiber laser, and has formulated a more efficient pumping scheme than is used at present. Lastly using it has demonstrated 100 W powers with a Raman fiber laser pumped by a solid-state Yb:YAG laser. The UCF group, now stands at the threshold of making spectacular gains in directions created by their current successes: (i) they are in a position to characterize experimentally the transverse mode instability, having the added advantage of being able to design and fabricate fibers that mitigate the instability, (ii) for the directed energy program, they are in a unique position of studying light propagation by multi-kW single-mode Yb fiber lasers and (iii), they are in the position to generate for the first time Raman fiber laser emission, utilizing new optical fibers, and their multi-kW Yb fiber lasers.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 12, 2021
- Source ID
- FA95502010126
Entities
People
- Martin Richardson
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- United States Air Force
- University of Central Florida Board of Trustees