Research progress of high-power laser transmission technology based on air-core anti-resonant fiber
summary
High-power fiber lasers are widely used in many fields due to their advantages of high conversion efficiency, stable performance, good beam quality and compact structure. With the continuous improvement of output power and the continuous expansion of output spectral range, traditional quartz fibers cannot meet the needs of high-power laser flexible transmission due to factors such as material damage, nonlinearity and intrinsic absorption of materials. In recent years, the rapid development of hollow-core anti-resonant fibers has attracted extensive attention from researchers in the field of high-power laser transmission. The optical fiber confines the transmission of light in the air medium of the fiber core through the anti-resonant reflection optical waveguide effect, which greatly reduces the overlap between the mode field and the quartz material, and has excellent properties such as high damage threshold and low nonlinearity, and has made a series of breakthroughs in the field of laser transmission. In terms of transmission power, 1 km transmission of 1 kW CW laser, 30 mJ single-pulse energy nanosecond laser transmission and 20 GW peak power ultrashort pulse laser transmission have been realized based on air-core anti-resonant fibers in the world, showing its potential in power improvement. In terms of transmission band, the hollow-core anti-resonant fiber has realized laser transmission from the ultraviolet band to the mid-infrared band by adjusting the quartz wall thickness to regulate the transmission passband. Based on the design and preparation technology of high-performance air-core de-resonant fiber, the advanced laser and optical fiber technology research team of Beijing University of Technology has taken the lead in carrying out research on high-power laser transmission based on air-core de-resonant fiber in China, and has realized the 100-meter transmission of 3 kW continuous laser and the flexible transmission of 26.8 MW picosecond pulsed laser, and the transmission band has expanded from ultraviolet 355 nm to mid-infrared 4.35 μm, of which the average power transmitted in the 3.1 μm band has exceeded 20 W, which is at the world's leading level. In this paper, the development process of air-core anti-resonant fiber is briefly introduced, and the key technologies and research progress of high-power laser transmission based on this fiber are discussed.
summary
High-power fiber lasers are widely used in many fields due to their advantages of high conversion efficiency, stable performance, good beam quality and compact structure. With the continuous improvement of output power and the continuous expansion of output spectral range, traditional quartz fibers cannot meet the needs of high-power laser flexible transmission due to factors such as material damage, nonlinearity and intrinsic absorption of materials. In recent years, the rapid development of hollow-core anti-resonant fibers has attracted extensive attention from researchers in the field of high-power laser transmission. The optical fiber confines the transmission of light in the air medium of the fiber core through the anti-resonant reflection optical waveguide effect, which greatly reduces the overlap between the mode field and the quartz material, and has excellent properties such as high damage threshold and low nonlinearity, and has made a series of breakthroughs in the field of laser transmission. In terms of transmission power, 1 km transmission of 1 kW CW laser, 30 mJ single-pulse energy nanosecond laser transmission and 20 GW peak power ultrashort pulse laser transmission have been realized based on air-core anti-resonant fibers in the world, showing its potential in power improvement. In terms of transmission band, the hollow-core anti-resonant fiber has realized laser transmission from the ultraviolet band to the mid-infrared band by adjusting the quartz wall thickness to regulate the transmission passband. Based on the design and preparation technology of high-performance air-core de-resonant fiber, the advanced laser and optical fiber technology research team of Beijing University of Technology has taken the lead in carrying out research on high-power laser transmission based on air-core de-resonant fiber in China, and has realized the 100-meter transmission of 3 kW continuous laser and the flexible transmission of 26.8 MW picosecond pulsed laser, and the transmission band has expanded from ultraviolet 355 nm to mid-infrared 4.35 μm, of which the average power transmitted in the 3.1 μm band has exceeded 20 W, which is at the world's leading level. In this paper, the development process of air-core anti-resonant fiber is briefly introduced, and the key technologies and research progress of high-power laser transmission based on this fiber are discussed.