Compact, 17W average power, 100kW peak power, nanosecond fiber laser system

Abstract

We demonstrate a robust, compact, low-cost, pulsed, linearly polarized, 1064 nm, Yb:fiber laser system capable of generating ~100 kW peak power pulses and >17 W average power at repetition rates of 80 – 285 kHz. The system employs a configurable microchip seed laser that provides nanosecond (~1.0 – 1.5 ns) pulse durations. The seed pulses are amplified in an all-fiber, polarization maintaining, large mode area (LMA) fiber amplifier optimized for high peak power operation. The LMA Yb:fiber amplifier enables near diffraction limited beam quality at 100 kW peak power. The seed laser, fiber amplifier, and beam delivery optics are packaged into an air-cooled laser head of 152×330×87 mm3 with pump power provided from a separate air-cooled laser controller. Due to the high peak power, high beam quality, spectral purity, and linearly polarized nature of the output beam, the laser is readily frequency doubled to 532 nm. Average 532 nm powers up to 7 W and peak powers exceeding 40 kW have been demonstrated. Potential for scaling to higher peak and average powers in both the green and infrared (IR) will be discussed. This laser system has been field tested and demonstrated in numerous materials processing applications in both the IR and green, including scribing and marking. We discuss recent results that demonstrate success in processing a diverse array of representative industrial samples.