Rare Elements Bring New Capabilities to Optical 바카라 성공 디시

Optical 바카라 성공 디시is everywhere — our home internet, automobiles, medical offices, telecommunications, and many more, all employ optical 바카라 성공 디시 to deliver services we rely on.

Today, specialty optical 바카라 성공 디시s bring collision avoidance to your car, precision surgery with minimal scarring, diagnose eye diseases, and can remotely sense temperature changes in power plants, or physical strain in large bridges. In many of these applications, the 바카라 성공 디시 has replaced copper wire because it offers higher data rates and/or lower weight.

It all started when engineers realized that light could be efficiently sent down an optical 바카라 성공 디시: a thin strand of glass.

There are many different types of optical 바카라 성공 디시 needed for these diverse applications. The 바카라 성공 디시s that are not used for telecom transmission are often collectively referred to as “specialty 바카라 성공 디시s”.

In terms of its broad impact across many industries and technologies, one of the most important applications of specialty 바카라 성공 디시s is their use in generating laser light and amplifying laser light.

This specialization is usually implemented by a rare earth element. The glass contains a small amount of one or more of these elements. The use of rare earth dopants brings greater precision and control over the wavelength and power required across the variety of applications that rely on specialty optical 바카라 성공 디시.

The growing demand for specialty optical 바카라 성공 디시

바카라 성공 디시 earths are a group of metal elements including neodymium (Nd), erbium (Er), thulium (Tm), holmium (Ho), and ytterbium (Yb).

바카라 성공 디시s doped with rare earth metals act as the gain medium in lasers optimized for industrial, scientific, medical, and aerospace applications.

The diverse end uses of these 바카라 성공 디시s range from welding “difficult” metals in e-vehicles, to precision 바카라 성공 디시 surgery, to marking medical devices, to remote imaging.

Coherent is a world-leading manufacturer of this type ofspecialty optical 바카라 성공 디시, supporting the ever-growing demand with over 11,000 km (6,835 mi) of 바카라 성공 디시 a year - more than the distance from the North Pole to the equator!

Traditional solid-state 바카라 성공 디시s and the heat problem

Neodymium in particular has actually been used for decades in 바카라 성공 디시s.

In the early days of 바카라 성공 디시s, scientists found that when neodymium ions are hosted in glass or certain crystal materials such as garnet or vanadate, the doped material can absorb light and then re-emit the energy as intense 바카라 성공 디시 light. The absorption is called “pumping” and for years the pump light was provided by intense flash lamps.

To reduce problematic waste heat produced in these 바카라 성공 디시s, Coherent and other 바카라 성공 디시 manufacturers replaced the lamps with semiconductor (diode-바카라 성공 디시) chips to create the diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) 바카라 성공 디시.

But while the heat was reduced, it was certainly not eliminated. And heat still had to flow from the middle of the crystal to the surrounding cooling water.

Then the field of telecom pointed to an innovative solution.

바카라 성공 디시 – the shape of things to come

Because in the world of long-distance telecom based on optical 바카라 성공 디시s, engineers had meanwhile found there was another – apparently unrelated – photonic technological challenge to overcome. Long distance, i.e., trans-oceanic, transmission was a problem because of limits to how far the light signal could go down a 바카라 성공 디시 before the small losses eventually killed it.

A solution came in 1987 in the form of the erbium-doped 바카라 성공 디시 amplifier (EDFA).

Engineers showed that a 바카라 성공 디시 doped with erbium ions could absorb light from a diode laser and act as a laser amplifier. Specifically, the EDFA directly boosts (amplifies) any light signal passing along the 바카라 성공 디시. This all-optical signal amplification has proved key to the digitally connected global world we live in today.

바카라 성공 디시 lasers and amplifiers

The바카라 성공 디시 laser amplifieralso showed laser engineers a pathway to higher-power lasers for scientific and industrial applications - without all the cooling problems. A range of specialty 바카라 성공 디시s based on the same type of rare earth doping was soon developed and these were used to create 바카라 성공 디시 lasers and high-power amplifiers. With power ranging from a few watts tokilowatts, these 바카라 성공 디시-based laser systems now support an incredibly diverse world of applications, including efficient materials processing applications such as drilling, cutting, welding, and marking. In fact, 바카라 성공 디시 lasers dominate some of these applications.

Figure 1.(above) shows the spectrum of visible, inf바카라 성공 디시d, and eye-safe wavelengths.

Another area of 바카라 성공 디시 laser domination is inmedical applications.Thulium-doped 바카라 성공 디시s are widely used in urology andlithotripsy treatment, as the Tm 바카라 성공 디시 laser produces higher pulse rates, resulting in smaller stone fragments and thereby reducing patient discomfort and speeding recovery.
 
The onset of strong light absorption by water at wavelengths 바카라 성공 디시ound 1400 nm make wavelengths longer than this useful for medical (e.g.,surgical ablation) applications while enabling remote 바카라 성공 디시 delivery. Because of this water absorption, 1400 nm is generally regarded as the cut-on wavelength for eye-safe lasers; longer wavelengths are safely absorbed by water on the outside of the eye and don’t penetrate to the retina. This makes these invisible wavelengths also useful in innovative applications such aslid바카라 성공 디시 imaging, automotive safety systems, and autonomous (self-driving) c바카라 성공 디시s for example.

Thousands of different doped 바카라 성공 디시 options

Figure 2 summarizes the wavelength characteristics of the five commonly used rare earth ions Nd, Er, Yb, Tm, or Ho: both the emission wavelengths and the requisite pumping wavelengths. Yb is increasingly popular in ultra-short pulse (USP) lasers because its relatively broad emission bandwidth supports mode-locked 바카라 성공 디시 lasers with pulses as short as50 femtosecondsand amplified (i.e., high power) systems like theCoherent Monacoseries with pulses of just a few hundred femtoseconds (fs).

The wavelength characteristics of the five commonly used rare earth ions Nd, Er, Yb, Tm, and Ho. The red curve shows the attenuation of the glass host used in the 바카라 성공 디시.

In addition to the five individual dopants, Coherent also offers specialty optical 바카라 성공 디시 co-doped with both Er and Yb. The Er acts as the gain medium, resulting in emission around 1550 nm, depending on the doping concentration. The Yb acts as a light absorber, preventing unwanted amplified spontaneous emission around 1 micron, ensuring a laser system that is completely eye safe.

Coherent doped 바카라 성공 디시s바카라 성공 디시e available assingle-mode(SM),multi-mode(MM),pol바카라 성공 디시ization maintaining(PM), and large area-mode (LMA) 바카라 성공 디시s, all with several choices in both the numerical aperture (NA) and the core diameter. Plus, the full product line includes single-clad, double-clad, and triple-clad 바카라 성공 디시s. Altogether this encompasses thousands of different doped 바카라 성공 디시s. And on top of all that, we also make custom 바카라 성공 디시s that can withstandhigh heat, assist with aircraftnavigation, aid with satellite communications, and much more.

Not-so-바카라 성공 디시 earths

The story ofdoped 바카라 성공 디시and its use in lasers and laser amplifiers is one that combined clever engineers with a slice of good fortune, where a solution to one challenge proved ideal for another problem. The result has been an important power-scalable laser architecture all supported by doping with those not-so-바카라 성공 디시 earths.

Interested in buying your own specialty 바카라 성공 디시?  Visit us atshop.coherent.com/

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