Development of innovative fiber lasers for biomedical, industrial and defense & security applications

光纤激光器和激光二极管一起，极大地促进了新一代激光光源的发展，以及它们在人类活动的几乎每一个领域的应用。在制造业领域，准衍射受限光纤激光器在1微米波长下的输出功率达到数十千瓦，为金属的切割和焊接带来了革命性的变化。工作在1.5微米的掺铒石英光纤激光器和放大器在全光通信网络的发展中也发挥了关键作用。事实上，光纤激光器已经彻底改变了工业激光器，以至于几位专家现在预测，它们将在未来十年内完全消灭固态激光器。在制造业，最先由德国和日本公司大量引入的光纤激光器，已经接管了焊接、精细钻探和金属切割等业务。与它们所取代的固态激光器相比，它们坚固耐用、紧凑且高度可靠。现在，这些卓越的特性直接来源于光纤布拉格光栅(FBG)的物理特性。事实上，在单片(即全光纤)光纤激光器中使用FBG作为集成腔耦合器，消除了所有的机械不稳定性，从而极大地提高了其坚固性，并大大减小了器件的整体尺寸。事实上，FBG确实是推动商业光纤激光器发展的关键部件。因此，这项提议旨在支持与我们的工业合作伙伴开展有针对性的合作研究工作，旨在为开发单片光纤激光器开发最佳制造工艺，即1微米波长的高功率光纤激光器以及工作在2微米至4微米之间的中红外光纤激光器。

Fiber lasers, along with laser diodes, have greatly contributed to the development of a new generation of laser sources as well as their applications in virtually every sector of human activity. In the manufacturing sector, quasi diffraction-limited ytterbium fiber laser sources with output power of the order of tens of kW at a wavelength of 1 µm have revolutionized cutting and welding of metals. Erbium-doped silica fiber-based lasers and amplifiers operating at 1.5 µm have also played a key role in the development of all-optical telecommunication networks. In fact, fibre lasers have completely revolutionized industrial lasers to such an extent that several experts are now forecasting that they will totally wipe out solid-state lasers within the next decade. In the manufacturing sector, fibre lasers, first introduced massively by German and Japanese companies, have already taken over operations such as welding, fine drilling and cutting of metals. Compared to the solid-state lasers that they have replaced, they are rugged, compact and highly reliable. Now, these superior features are directly derived from the physical properties of Fibre Bragg gratings (FBGs). In fact, the use of FBGs as integrated cavity couplers in Monolithic (i.e. all-fibre) fibre lasers eliminates all mechanical instability, thus tremendously improves its ruggedness and considerably reduces the device overall dimension. In fact, FBGs is truly the key component allowing for the development of commercial fibre lasers. This proposal therefore aims at supporting a targeted collaborative research effort with our industrial partners, aiming at the development of an optimal manufacturing process for the development of monolithic fibre lasers, namely high power fiber lasers at the wavelength 1 µm as well as Mid-Infrared fiber lasers operating between 2µm and 4 µm.