Summary

Description

This facility is the only test bed in the world with available pump power levels of up to 2 kW at 1530 nm. It evaluates the power scalability of fiber lasers and amplifiers using the resonant pumping approach in order to achieve a better understanding of the scalability limit for fiber lasers operating in the eyesafe wavelength regions of 1.56 - 1.62 μm, for resonantly pumped erbium (Er)-doped fibers, and 1.85 - 2.1 μm, for resonantly pumped thulium (Tm)-doped fibers. Pump sources are InP/InGaAsP laser diode modules fiber-coupled into standard 105/125 μm, 0.22 numerical aperture (NA) multimode delivery fibers. Fiber coupling integrates the pump via commercial pump couplers/combiners into active fibers (doped laser fibers). The High Energy Laser-Joint Technology Office (HEL-JTO) and ARL jointly funded the facility. The test bed will be available to government and non-government customers interested in testing their developed components, including pump couplers, step-index and photonic crystal fiber (PCF) laser fibers, and all-fiber optical isolators.