Fibre laser claims record output power

Southampton Photonics and the University of Southampton's Optoelectronics Research Centre have produced more than 1kW output in a high-quality beam from a single-fibre laser.

Southampton Photonics (SPI) and the University of Southampton's Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) have produced more than 1kW output in a high-quality beam from a single-fibre laser.

The team, led by Johan Nilsson, Yoonchan Jeong (at the ORC) and Ray Horley (at SPI), achieved the result in an ytterbium-doped fibre laser operating at 1090nm.

The laser exhibited significantly improved beam quality compared with conventional high-power lasers and to previously reported large-core multimode fibre lasers.

The new laser also exhibited extremely high efficiency (80%) relative to the launched diode-laser pump power.

As a further indication of the potential of fibre lasers to combine high beam quality and output power, the team also demonstrated a record 600W of output in a single transverse mode.

David Payne, SPI's Chairman and Director of the ORC, commented: "Breaking the kilowatt barrier with a single fibre having high beam quality is a milestone thought to be virtually unattainable just a few years ago, and now we have done it.

Our high power fibre laser programme team has set many world records over the past two years, but this one stands apart".

David Parker, SPI's CEO, added: "SPI will be commercialising the kilowatt laser technology for industrial and aerospace applications requiring compact, reliable kilowatt sources.

We also anticipate that lasers with this level of performance will be utilised as standard building blocks for even higher power applications".

The work was funded by DARPA under its high-power fibre laser programme.

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