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FrozenGate by Avery

Building a fiber laser

Joined
Nov 2, 2015
Messages
74
Points
18
Has anyone here constructed their own fiber laser? I'm posting here as the NIR band doesn't fit into the colour based categories well.

I'm looking to build my own, in the region of 100W CW. I want to know if there are any special considerations that need to be made in regard to bragg gratings and their power capacity - if that is even applicable. I'm trying to find something suitable for a high power rig but a lot of what is available is intended for telecommunications. Can I just use any FBG if the target wavelength is correct and the clad/core sizings match?
 





Oh cool. I've never touched anything with that kind of power, but I work a lot with FBG.

Are you recording the FBG yourself or are they prewritten? What are you measuring with the FBG? What sort of fiber are you using? Why are you using so much power?

There are tons of considerations, but you've probably already figured out the basics if you made it this far. For example, you want to make sure your FBG can withstand that sort of energy without being damaged.
 
I would like to know that myself, also sourcing doped double clad fiber and fused biconic couplers to match your pumps, please post your findings as you journey through this build, I'm sure a lot of people would like to build their own and save if it's reasonably possible but I have concerns about leaks and burn through, so I expect everything needs to be matched to start and checked via IR camera during run testing, that and enclosed in a good box just in case.

The price of Chinese produced home fiber engravers are coming down, I expect finding a pre owned 20-40W unit would be the most cost effective way to go, what could work is combining the output of gently used sister units.
 
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Prewritten no doubt. The equipment used to manufacture them is quite expensive. The FBGs serve as reflectors/bandpass filters in this context.

It definitely makes more sense to just buy an engraving unit if you want sub 50W. A splicer alone is around 1k USD.

I need CW as I'm working with metal powders. Pulsed probably works too, if the parameters are correct, but most examples I come across use CW.

I'm wondering if most FBGs are directly written into the gain medium but I don't see why they can't be added separately unless spacing is an issue. Would Yb doped fiber contain any Ge anyway?

I'm still on the hunt for reasonably priced resources. Couplers I've seen run into the hundreds so I'm not opposed to trying to make my own.

I'm using a 915nm pump so it's only just visible by your typical camera. It might be enough to recognize any leakage.
 





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