Visible Fiber Lasers

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Nowadays, fiber lasers can be found in high-level research laboratories as well as in a variety of industrial settings or in portable tools and systems for a plethora of applications in wide ranging fields from the biomedical and environmental sectors to manufacturing. For instance, high power kW class Ytterbium fiber lasers operating near 1 micron with their unequaled properties have completely revolutionized the automotive industry by powering advanced industrial processes including precision welding, cutting, marking, cleaning and drilling of a variety of materials. It is however amazing to realize that most of the development regarding fiber lasers, based on fused silica glass optical fibers, has been restricted to the Near-Infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum, essentially between 1 and 2 micron. In principle though, lanthanide doped fiber lasers have the potential to produce coherent radiation almost continuously from the near-ultraviolet to the Mid-Infrared. With their outstanding optical properties, low-loss fluoride glass optical fibers have clearly emerged as the best candidate to replace fused silica fibers for spectrally extended laser emission. With this NSERC Discovery Grant, I propose to address the scientific challenges related to the development of fluoride glass visible fiber lasers, lying in the short-wavelength spectral region essentially untapped by silica fiber lasers. From a fundamental science perspective, the development of monolithic and powerful visible fiber lasers is very likely to have a significant impact on both the advancement of knowledge and training of HQP in this very promising research area. In fact, the two recent Nobel prizes for "the invention of blue emitting diodes" and for "the development of super-resolved microscopy" have both emphasized the importance of visible light not only in research laboratories but more generally in our everyday life. It is also important to highlight the fact that by nature, visible light is more appealing simply because one can see it as opposed to ultraviolet or infrared radiation. Visible lasers are thus naturally suited for teaching and outreach activities. Laser headlights, laser pointers or data storage devices all rely on such sources and are critically dependent on the development of compact reliable sources of visible radiation. Even though the recent advent of powerful blue emitting diodes have partly responded to the needs of some applications, there is still a lot to be done in terms of visible laser development in order to address the whole range of market needs. It is thus expected that the research outcome from this grant proposal will provide rich opportunities for knowledge translation to the scientific community, training of new cohorts of graduate students whose skills and expertise will continue to be in high demand, and socio-economic development through technology transfers and spin-offs.