Fiber laser systems and techniques
AssigneeMassachusetts Institute of Technology
InventorsJohn Kyungbum Kim, Kelsey D. Johnsen, Michael S. Riley, Luis F. Ortega
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Abstract
Described herein is a pulsed fiber laser system comprising: a seed laser configured to generate signal light comprising optical pulses; and a pump signal combiner configured to receive the signal light via at least a first fiber and configured to optically combine the signal light within the at least first fiber with pump light; a gain stage comprising one or more fiber amplifiers connected by at least a second fiber; and an encapsulated splice assembly optically coupling the at least first fiber to the at least second fiber.
Claims20
A pulsed fiber laser system comprising:
- a seed laser configured to generate signal light comprising optical pulses;
- and
- a pump signal combiner configured to receive the signal light via at least a first fiber and configured to optically combine the signal light within the at least first fiber with pump light;
- a gain stage comprising one or more fiber amplifiers connected by at least one second fiber;
- and
- an encapsulated splice assembly optically coupling the at least first fiber to the at least one second fiber.
A method for optically coupling a first fiber to a second fiber, the method comprising:
- forming a strip interface on both the first fiber and the second fiber;
- performing a pre-splice cleaning to remove residual coating and contaminates from both the first fiber and the second fiber;
- splicing the first fiber to the second fiber at their respective strip interfaces to provide a spliced fiber;
- performing a post-splice cleaning to remove contaminates from the spliced fiber resulting from the splicing;
- recoating at least a portion of the spliced fiber using a recoat material;
- encapsulating the spliced fiber within an encapsulated splice assembly;
- and
- backfilling at least a portion of the spliced fiber within the encapsulated splice assembly using the recoat material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.