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Thread: Build a fiber laser

  1. #1
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    Default Build a fiber laser

    This seems really simple in terms of how they work. Am I just fooling myself? Where can you buy doped fiber? I'm thinking of a red module of course.

  2. #2
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    Hi there a few years ago I contacted a vendor making fiber resonators for red. (445 pumped) After some discussion, they offered some for sale at a rate that is good for research but not for production. These red fiber lasers make fantastic tight beams at a beautiful color. The trick is you need a clean filtered box and, at least at the time, a microscope collimator to feed the fiber. Feed it wrong and the entry aperture is burnt. At the time I dropped it because the big red diodes were coming onto the market with usable specs but we can discuss more if you're interested.

  3. #3
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    ... do you really need a fiber-laser? - or can it be done with a fiber and coupling/feeding the diodes output into the fiber?

    I'm using fibercoupled IR-diodes for material processing ... and actually testing with other wavelengths diodes to get better beam-specs than with the diodes alone ...

    Viktor

  4. #4
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    Default fiber

    Quote Originally Posted by drlava View Post
    Hi there a few years ago I contacted a vendor making fiber resonators for red. (445 pumped) After some discussion, they offered some for sale at a rate that is good for research but not for production. These red fiber lasers make fantastic tight beams at a beautiful color. The trick is you need a clean filtered box and, at least at the time, a microscope collimator to feed the fiber. Feed it wrong and the entry aperture is burnt. At the time I dropped it because the big red diodes were coming onto the market with usable specs but we can discuss more if you're interested.
    YEs I would like to see what would be involved. Good to hear from you!


    I figure with the 5W blues 1-2W red is possible. I just had a wild hair. Can you triple dope a fiber for multiple wavelengths. IE use three pump diodes of different wavelengths to get rgb out of the single fiber! You can setup the gratings in the fibers so that they are invisible except at the desired wavelength. Thus you get a triple cavity in one cavity. I'm thinking of using the outer clad as the pump.

    My objective is to produce 1-2W red with gas laser specs but that doesn't cost opsl prices. It would also be nice to produce a yellow.

    On the triple fiber I wonder if since the fiber is so small if the outputs of three separate fibers were placed close to the final microscope if you could make a beam that would blend well enough that you only need to trim the edges to remove the overlap.

    It just seems to me with all the trouble we go to with alignment and optics that the best solution is not the one we are using. Even if I get 1W rgb total it would be fine as the beam quality would be amazing. For now red laser it is. triple fiber later.


    PS I made my own fiber optics in a flame. Can only make a few feet at a time but it did work. Can you dope higher amounts in the core for shorter cavities? To much attenuation?

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