Journal of Physical Chemistry & Biophysics
Open Access

Recent progress in mid-infrared fiber lasers at 3 μm

International Conference and Trade fair on Laser Technology

July 20-22, 2015 Orlando, Florida, USA

Xiushan Zhu

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Phys Chem Biophys

Abstract :

Compact and efficient mid-infrared (IR) laser sources have attracted significant interests due to their practical and potential applications in spectroscopy, remote sensing, material processing, IR countermeasures, laser surgery, and pump sources for nonlinear wavelength convertors. Among various mid-IR laser platforms, fiber lasers offer advantages such as inherent simplicity and flexibility, high efficiency, outstanding heat-dissipating capability, and excellent beam quality, and have been extensively studied during the last few decades. In particular, mid-IR fiber lasers at 3 μm have been successfully demonstrated with erbium (Er3+), holmium (Ho3+), and dysprosium (Dy3+) ions doped into ZrF4â??BaF2â??LaF3â??AlF3â??NaF (ZBLAN) fibers and recent advances in output power scaling have resulted in continuous-wave (CW) operation at 20-W level. Mid-IR pulsed lasers with peak powers some orders of magnitude higher than in the CW regime are highly desired for some applications aforementioned. Q-switched and mode-locked mid-IR fiber lasers have become an attractive research topic in recent years and various Q-switched and mode-locked fiber lasers at 3 μm have been demonstrated by using different passive and active modulation devices. These remarkable achievements will enable the implementation of mid-IR fiber lasers in a variety of applications. In this talk, recent progress in Q-switched and mode-locked fiber lasers at 3 μm will be presented and their further development and possible applications will be addressed.