Visible Fiber Lasers

如今，光纤激光器可以在高水平的研究实验室以及各种工业环境中找到，或者在从生物医学和环境部门到制造业的广泛领域的大量应用的便携式工具和系统中找到。例如，工作在1微米附近的高功率千瓦级光纤激光器以其无与伦比的性能为汽车行业带来了彻底的革命，它为各种材料的精密焊接、切割、标记、清洁和钻孔等先进工业工艺提供动力。然而，令人惊讶的是，大多数基于熔融石英玻璃光纤的光纤激光器的发展都局限于电磁光谱的近红外区域，基本上在1至2微米之间。尽管从原理上讲，掺镧光纤激光器有可能从近紫外光到中红外波段几乎连续地产生相干辐射。低损耗氟化物玻璃光纤凭借其突出的光学性能，显然已成为取代熔融石英光纤用于光谱扩展激光发射的最佳候选者。有了这笔NSERC发现拨款，我建议解决与氟化物玻璃可见光光纤激光器开发相关的科学挑战，该激光器位于基本上未被石英光纤激光器开发的短波长光谱区域。从基础科学的角度来看，单片式和高功率可见光光纤激光器的发展很可能对HQP在这一非常有前途的研究领域的知识进步和培训产生重大影响。事实上，最近的两个诺贝尔奖都强调了可见光不仅在研究实验室中的重要性，而且在我们的日常生活中也更普遍地强调了可见光的重要性。同样重要的是要强调这样一个事实，即从本质上讲，可见光更具吸引力，仅仅是因为人们可以看到它，而不是紫外线或红外辐射。可见激光自然适用于教学和外展活动。激光前照灯、激光指示器或数据存储设备都依赖于这种光源，并严重依赖于紧凑、可靠的可见光辐射源的发展。尽管最近出现的大功率蓝色发光二极管在一定程度上满足了一些应用的需求，但在可见光激光开发方面仍有很多工作要做，以满足所有市场需求。因此，预计这一赠款提案的研究成果将为科学界提供丰富的知识转化机会，培训新的研究生群体，他们的技能和专门知识将继续受到高度需求，并通过技术转让和衍生产品实现社会经济发展。

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.