Filtern
Dokumenttyp
- Zeitschriftenartikel (4)
- Buchkapitel (1)
Sprache
- Englisch (5)
Schlagworte
- Nanosecond laser (5) (entfernen)
Optical fibers made of fused silica are a common method of transmitting high laser pulse energies. Failure of those fibers is a significant risk. The determination of laser-induced damage thresholds (LIDT) on fiber end facets according to ISO 21254 standard is needed. In the past, single pulse nanosecond laser experiments showed an improvement of LIDT with increasing fiber core diameter for 1064 nm wavelength and a constant beam diameter of 50 µm.
This paper pays particular attention to the influence of the laser beam diameter on damage resistance. All-silica fiber types (LEONI) with different core diameters (100–600 µm) were investigated using beam diameters in a range from 30 µm to 100 µm. For comparison experiments on fused silica preform material (Heraeus F300) were performed. On one hand, surface LIDT of fused silica preform material decreases significantly with increasing beam size. A model considering a random distribution of point defects explains the experimental data qualitatively. On the other hand, LIDT of fiber end facets stays constant. White light microscopy results suggest that the point defect density on fiber end facets is lower compared to the preform surface due to an excellent surface polish quality.
Because of the increasingly stringent requirements for fibers in high Performance applications, the Business Unit Fiber Optics of the Leoni Group and the German BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing are jointly tackling the challenge of investigating the damage thresholds of selected large core special fibers for the first time.
Optical multimode fibers made of fused silica are widely used for transmission of high power laser pulses. Bending of fibers creates mechanical stress inside the material. The bend stress of a fiber can be calculated from bend radius, geometrical fiber parameters and Young's Modulus of the fiber core material and reaches typically values of 220 MPa. A thermo-elastic model of Kusov et al. predicts a quadratic dependence of laser-induced damage threshold fluence with applied stress.
In the present study, fiber preform material F300 (Heraeus) was loaded mechanically with pressures up to 220 MPa representing 20% of the pressure resistance of fused silica. Bulk laser-induced damage thresholds (LIDT) were evaluated using a longitudinal multimode Q-switched Nd:YAG laser (1064 nm) at a pulse duration of 12 ns with polarization states parallel and perpendicular to the stress direction. LIDT of fused silica samples of about 700 J/cm2 were found. LIDT did not show a dependence on mechanical pressure and polarization state which is a consequence of the small ratio of maximum applied stress (220 MPa) to Young's Modulus of fused silica (72.5 GPa).
High-power optical multimode fibers are essential components for materials processing
and surgery and can limit the reliability of expensive systems due to breakdown at the end faces.
The breakdown threshold of fibers is determined by intrinsic materials properties and parameters of
the technology applied. The aim of this paper is the identification of technological parameters that
are crucial for the fiber quality.
Fibers were drawn from preforms of Heraeus SWU with core material F300 and a low amount of
OH-. Both, the cladding (fluorine doped SiO2) to core diameter ratio (CCDR) and the drawing speed
were varied. CCDR values between 1.05 and 1.4 were used. Afterwards, the laser-induced damage
thresholds (LIDT) of the fibers were determined. For comparison, also samples from preforms,
which underwent different thermal treatments above the transition temperature, were tested with
respect to their damage resistivity. Single and multi pulse LIDT measurements were done in
accordance with the relevant ISO standards. Nd:YAG laser pulses with durations of 15 ns (1064 nm
wavelength) and 8.5 ns (532 nm) at a repetition rate of 10 Hz were utilized. For the fibers, LIDT
values (1-on-1, 1064 nm and 532 nm) increased with growing CCDR and with decreasing drawing
velocities.