Introduction to commonly used fiber lasers
Fiber laser refers to a laser that uses rare-earth-doped glass fiber as the gain medium. Fiber laser can be developed on the basis of fiber amplifier: high power density is easily formed in the fiber under the action of pump light, which causes the laser to work The laser energy level of a substance is 'number inversion
The application range of fiber laser is very wide, including laser fiber communication, laser space telecommunication, industrial shipbuilding, automobile manufacturing, laser engraving, laser marking, laser cutting, printing roller, metal and non-metal drilling /Cutting/welding (brazing, quenching, cladding and deep welding), military and national defense security, medical equipment, large-scale infrastructure, etc.
2. Advantages of fiber lasers
As a representative of the third-generation laser technology, fiber lasers have the following advantages:
(1) Low manufacturing cost of glass fiber , The advantages of miniaturization and intensiveness brought by the mature technology and the flexibility of the fiber;
(2) The glass fiber does not require strict phase matching like crystals for the incident pump light. It is due to the non-uniform broadening of the glass matrix that causes the absorption band to be wider;
(3) Glass materials have extremely low volume-to-area ratio, fast heat dissipation, and low loss, so the conversion efficiency is high. The laser threshold is low;
(4) The output laser wavelength is more: this is because the energy level of rare earth ions is very rich, and there are many kinds of rare earth ions;
(5) Tunability: rare earth The ion energy level is wide, and the fluorescence spectrum of the glass fiber is wide.
(6) Since the fiber laser has no optical lens in the resonant cavity, it has the advantages of adjustment-free, maintenance-free, and high stability, which is unmatched by traditional lasers.
(7) The fiber export makes the laser easily competent for various multi-dimensional and arbitrary space processing applications, making the design of the mechanical system very simple.
(8) Competent in harsh working environment, with high tolerance to dust, shock, impact, humidity and temperature.
(9) High electro-optical efficiency: The comprehensive electro-optical efficiency is as high as 30% or more, which greatly saves power consumption during work and saves operating costs.
(10) High power, currently commercial fiber lasers have reached 20,000 watts.