Fiber raman lasers and nonlinear frequency generation

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Fiber lasers have become the fastest-growing laser type for the last few years due to their distinctive featuressuch as durability, reduced on-going maintenance, power efficiency, and low cost. They have importantapplications in numerous fields from communications, instrumentation, sensing, and medical surgery; in 2017,the total fiber laser revenue worldwide is projected to be $1.41 billion. While the fiber laser market initiallyfocused on the 1550 nm wavelength range, there are increasing opportunities for fiber lasers in the UV, visible,and mid-IR wavelength ranges. Such wavelengths can be obtained using all-fiber Raman lasers and nonlinearfrequency generation. This research represents a strategic collaboration between McGill University and O/ELand Inc. that is directed at the key challenge of developing low-cost, high-power, widely tunable Raman fiberlasers at 1650 nm as well as their nonlinear frequency conversion to obtain radiation at 800 - 850 nm as well as400 - 425 nm. Fiber lasers at 1650 nm are of great importance chemical sensing, LIDAR, and free-spacecommunications, yet are not readily available from conventional doped-fiber; sources at 800 - 850 nm and 400- 425 nm are used in biophotonics, photonic quantum information, time-resolved spectroscopy, andfluorescence microscopy, amongst others. A successful project outcome will allow O/E Land to develop thesenew laser products and address a gap in what is commercially available, add to their technology portfolio, andgive them a competitive advantage in meeting their clients' needs. Training of HQP will provide them withopportunities to solve complex problems, perform critical analysis, and develop specific technical skills thatare highly valuable to the broad Canadian Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) sectoremployers including optical component and instrumentation suppliers such as MPB Communications(Montreal, QC), EXFO (Quebec City, QC), OZ Optics (Ottawa, ON), and Lumentum (Ottawa, ON).