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World Record Power achieved in Fiber Laser
CLEO-Europe, Munich June 23, 2003 -- SPI (Southampton Photonics, Inc.) and the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), University of Southampton, UK, have demonstrated over 600 Watts from a single fiber laser. These results, which the team believes to be the highest powers reported to date with a single fiber gain module, demonstrate that cladding pumped fiber lasers can produce the high powers needed to compete with more traditional laser technology, in applications such as remote welding, by offering high powers which preserve beam quality. These results are included in a presentation this week by SPI at the CLEO Europe conference.
The team led by Dr Johan Nilsson produced over 600 Watts output power at 1090 nm from an Ytterbium Doped Fiber Laser (YDFL). Ytterbium-doped fiber lasers are amongst the most efficient lasers available. According to SPI's roadmap, single fiber, single-mode output powers well in excess of a kW will be achieved in the not too distant future. These lasers can then be combined to produce multi-kW solutions with excellent beam quality, efficiency and reliability. The work was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under their High Power Fiber Laser program.
David Parker, SPI's CEO, commented: "This result is another example of how SPI is developing scaleable fiber laser designs and architectures, from the 100 Watt fiber laser products that we are offering today to the kilowatt fiber lasers we will be delivering in the near future. These fiber lasers reflect SPI's execution to our roadmap of delivering advanced, manufacturable fiber laser technology to our OEMsE
About SPI
SPI is at the forefront of a revolution in the design and manufacture of optical components, delivering state-of-the art products that are driving down the inventory and maintenance costs of its customers in the industrial, aerospace, analytical, communications and sensing markets. SPI's innovations in high-power lasers, amplification and wavelength management are underpinned by its unique, patented specialty fiber technology and manufacturing capability. SPI's current product range includes: fiber lasers and laser arrays, high-power optical amplifiers and sources, filters (fiber Bragg gratings), combining optics and dispersion compensators. SPI's gratings have the world's lowest distortion and combined with their ultra-low dispersion, make them very easy to use.
Contact
Christine Skellon, SPI (Southampton Photonics), Phi House, Enterprise Road, Chilworth Science Park, Southampton, SO16 7NS, UK Tel: +44 (0)23 8076 5416 christine.skellon@spioptics.com
Don Spalinger: SPI (Southampton Photonics, Inc.), 170 Knowles Drive, Suite 212, Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA. Tel: +1 408 866 0472 x 288 don.spalinger@spioptics.com
www.spioptics.com ;
www.orc.soton.ac.uk
This article courtesy of weldingorg.com.
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