Abstract
AbstractWe review the use of hollow-core photonic crystal fibre (HC-PCF) for high power laser beam delivery. A comparison of bandgap HC-PCF with Kagome-lattice HC-PCF on the geometry, guidance mechanism, and optical properties shows that the Kagome-type HC-PCF is an ideal host for high power laser beam transportation because of its large core size, low attenuation, broadband transmission, single-mode guidance, low dispersion and the ultra-low optical overlap between the core-guided modes and the silica core-surround. The power handling capability of Kagome-type HC-PCF is further experimentally demonstrated by millijoule nanosecond laser spark ignition and ${\sim }100~\mathrm{\mu} \mathrm{J} $ sub-picosecond laser pulse transportation and compression.
Highlights
Recent advances in high power lasers and their wide applications in bio-photonics, micro-machining, surface patterning, laser surgery, texturing,sensing and military applications[1,2,3,4] call for a flexible and robust means for beam delivery over a metre-long optical path
Silica-core-based optical fibre suffers from high dispersion, high nonlinearity and low laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT), which has hindered its successful implementation
The advent of hollow-core photonic crystal fibre (HCPCF), where the majority of the light is guided through air, stimulated a number of interesting applications including higher power laser beam delivery
Summary
The advent of hollow-core photonic crystal fibre (HCPCF), where the majority of the light is guided through air, stimulated a number of interesting applications including higher power laser beam delivery. The theoretical demonstration of this concept by Birks et al.[9] in 1995 suggested that a new type of optical fibre whose cladding exhibited a two-dimensional periodic array of air holes was possible to guide light in defects with material indices lower than that of the vacuum (i.e., optical guidance in a hollow defect is possible) This led to the experimental demonstration of an HC-PCF by Cregan et al in 1999[10]. For high laser power transportation applications, the enhancement of IC reduces the optical propagation loss and the optical power overlap with the silica core-surround Both bandgap HC-PCF and Kagome HC-PCF have been used for high power laser beam delivery. The limit of bandgap HC-PCF in transporting high energy pulses lies in the relatively small core diameter (10–20 μm) and the strong overlap of the air core mode with the silica core-surround.
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