High-Power Photonic Crystal Fiber Lasers
Holey fiber overcomes limitations of conventional fiber for applications in lasers and amplifiers
Kim P. Hansen and Jes Broeng, Crystal Fibre A/S
The use of optical fiber has expanded dramatically in recent years. Arising from a technology strongly focused on telecommunications, fiber now may be found in such diverse fields as biotechnology, astronomy and medicine.
One of the fastest growing and most promising applications of optical fiber is in high-power fiber lasers. In the past few years, fiber lasers have evolved from low-power systems for niche applications into challengers to the traditional high-power industrial lasers for materials processing.1 Fiber lasers are gaining market share at a strong pace and are projected to be the industry standard within a few years for marking, printing, cutting and welding...
The complete article appears in the May 2006 issue of Photonics Spectra. If you do not have a copy of this issue,
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