nLight Photonics — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: nLight proposes to develop and commercialize an innovative kilo-watt class fiber laser pum

Description

nLight proposes to develop and commercialize an innovative kilo-watt class fiber laser pump combiner which is especially suited for counter-pumping architectures that is indispensable for various coherent combining techniques. The key advantages of this proposed technology over the current state-of-the art are: its superior power-handling capability due to use of all-metal/glass in the package; lack of signal beam distortion while maintaining high polarization extinction ratio; capability to inject pump power at multiple locations along the gain fiber for power-scaling purpose; absence of any passive relay fiber that is notoriously responsible for earlier onset of Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS); an agile technology that allows coupling to various geometry fibers (PM or non-PM) without having to ab intio redesign the coupler while providing higher reliability and lower manufacturing cost. nLight will demonstrate kilowatt-class amplifier using this pump combiner and its proprietary active fiber.