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US 10,096,965 B2Granted
Algorithms for rapid gating of seed suspendable pulsed fiber laser amplifiers
AssigneenLIGHT, Inc.
InventorsC. Geoffrey Fanning, Timothy N. Kutscha
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Pulsed fiber lasers that amplify seed laser pulses include pump laser drivers that produce simmer currents during periods in which the seed pulse is suspended, and forward currents associated with steady state pulse amplification. By suitable selection of simmer currents, initiation of a series of seed pulses produces pulse-to-pulse output powers with suitable power variation.
Claims27
A laser system, comprising:
- a seed laser;
- a doped fiber situated to receive optical pulses from the seed laser;
- a pump laser coupled to the doped fiber and configured to deliver pump optical radiation to the doped fiber to produce optical gain;
- and
- a pulse controller coupled to the seed laser and configured to signal initiation of a series of seed pulses, and coupled to the pump laser and configured to switch a pump laser drive current from a simmer current to a forward current upon initiation of the optical pulses from the seed laser, wherein the simmer current is selected to produce a gain for a first seed laser pulse in the series of seed pulses that corresponds to a saturated gain associated with exposure to the series of seed pulses produced with a forward current.
2 more elements
A laser system, comprising:
- a pump laser driver coupled to switchably provide a forward drive current and a simmer drive current;
- and
- a laser system controller that initiates a seed laser pulse sequence and communicates switching from the simmer drive current to the forward drive current in the pump laser driver.
A method, comprising:
- applying a simmer drive current to a pump laser current of a fiber amplifier with a pump laser driver, the pump laser driver coupled to switchably provide a forward drive current and the simmer drive current;
- initiating a series of seed pulses of a seed laser pulse sequence with a laser system controller and directing the series of seed pulses to the fiber amplifier;
- and with the laser system controller, communicatively switching the pump laser current of the fiber amplifier from the simmer drive current to the forward drive current in association with initiating the series of seed pulses.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.