高功率梯度掺杂增益光纤温度特性理论研究

在高功率光纤激光器中, 增益光纤的热效应是限制激光功率进一步提高的重要因素之一. 为了降低增益光纤的最高温度, 提出了一种通过改变增益光纤的掺杂浓度分布, 分散光纤激光的热效应, 从而提高激光输出功率的方法. 基于速率方程模型和热传导模型, 在光纤激光放大器输出功率大致相当的情况下, 对几种不同掺杂方式下增益光纤中的热分布和放大器的输出功率进行了数值模拟. 研究结果表明: 增益光纤的梯度掺杂可以优化光纤中的温度分布并提高光纤熔接点的稳定性; 同时兼具提高输出光束的光束质量、抑制光纤中非线性效应和模式不稳定的效果, 是提高光纤激光放大器输出功率切实可行的办法. 研究结果可以为高功率光纤激光器中增益光纤的设计提供一定的参考.

Theoretical study of the temperature distribution in high power gain fiber of gradient doping

Thermal effect in the gain fiber is one of the main factors which restrict the power improvement of high power fiber amplifiers. Previous studies have shown that the temperature distribution is closely related to the doping concentration along the gain fiber. In order to reduce the maximum temperature of the gain fiber, we propose to use doping concentration varying along the gain fiber as a method to disperse the thermal effect of the fiber laser and improve the laser output power. Based on the rate equation model and thermal conduction model, the thermal distributions and output powers of several different gradient doping gain fibers are simulated in the cases where the output powers are approximately the same. Our study shows that compared with the conventional constant doping gain fiber, linear doping of the rare earth ion along the gain fiber can reduce the maximum temperature of the gain fiber as well as the temperature of the fusion point greatly, thus improving the stabilities of the fusion point and the fiber laser amplifier. In the case of cosinoidal doping, the gain fiber can not only reduce the temperature of the fusion point but also make the temperature have a periodic distribution along the gain fiber, which can suppress the stimulated Brillouin scattering effect effectively. The exponential doping of the gain fiber can also reduce the maximum temperature and the temperature of the fusion point, which is beneficial to the further scaling of the fiber laser output power. At the same time, it can make the gain of the signal light have a uniform distribution along the gain fiber, which suppresses the mode instability effect and improves the output beam quality of the fiber laser. These conclusions also hold true when the pump power changes. Therefore, the gradient doping of the gain fiber proposed in this paper can optimize the temperature distribution along the fiber and improve the stability of the fusion point. Besides, it can improve the beam quality of the output laser and suppress the nonlinear effect and mode instability effect. The results indicate that the gradient doping of the gain fiber is an effective and feasible way to improve the output power of fiber amplifier. Last but not the least, it is possible to produce the gradient doping gain fiber by the laser heated pedestal growth method and the direct nanoparticle deposition technique. The investigation can present a reference for designing the gain fiber in high-power fiber laser systems.