If you need assistance, please send an email to forum at 4hv dot org. To ensure your email is not marked as spam, please include the phrase "4hv help" in the subject line. You can also find assistance via IRC, at irc.shadowworld.net, room #hvcomm.
Support 4hv.org!
Donate:
4hv.org is hosted on a dedicated server. Unfortunately, this server costs and we rely on the help of site members to keep 4hv.org running. Please consider donating. We will place your name on the thanks list and you'll be helping to keep 4hv.org alive and free for everyone. Members whose names appear in red bold have donated recently. Green bold denotes those who have recently donated to keep the server carbon neutral.
Special Thanks To:
Aaron Holmes
Aaron Wheeler
Adam Horden
Alan Scrimgeour
Andre
Andrew Haynes
Anonymous000
asabase
Austin Weil
barney
Barry
Bert Hickman
Bill Kukowski
Blitzorn
Brandon Paradelas
Bruce Bowling
BubeeMike
Byong Park
Cesiumsponge
Chris F.
Chris Hooper
Corey Worthington
Derek Woodroffe
Dalus
Dan Strother
Daniel Davis
Daniel Uhrenholt
datasheetarchive
Dave Billington
Dave Marshall
David F.
Dennis Rogers
drelectrix
Dr. John Gudenas
Dr. Spark
E.TexasTesla
eastvoltresearch
Eirik Taylor
Erik Dyakov
Erlend^SE
Finn Hammer
Firebug24k
GalliumMan
Gary Peterson
George Slade
GhostNull
Gordon Mcknight
Graham Armitage
Grant
GreySoul
Henry H
IamSmooth
In memory of Leo Powning
Jacob Cash
James Howells
James Pawson
Jeff Greenfield
Jeff Thomas
Jesse Frost
Jim Mitchell
jlr134
Joe Mastroianni
John Forcina
John Oberg
John Willcutt
Jon Newcomb
klugesmith
Leslie Wright
Lutz Hoffman
Mads Barnkob
Martin King
Mats Karlsson
Matt Gibson
Matthew Guidry
mbd
Michael D'Angelo
Mikkel
mileswaldron
mister_rf
Neil Foster
Nick de Smith
Nick Soroka
nicklenorp
Nik
Norman Stanley
Patrick Coleman
Paul Brodie
Paul Jordan
Paul Montgomery
Ped
Peter Krogen
Peter Terren
PhilGood
Richard Feldman
Robert Bush
Royce Bailey
Scott Fusare
Scott Newman
smiffy
Stella
Steven Busic
Steve Conner
Steve Jones
Steve Ward
Sulaiman
Thomas Coyle
Thomas A. Wallace
Thomas W
Timo
Torch
Ulf Jonsson
vasil
Vaxian
vladi mazzilli
wastehl
Weston
William Kim
William N.
William Stehl
Wesley Venis
The aforementioned have contributed financially to the continuing triumph of 4hv.org. They are deserving of my most heartfelt thanks.
Registered Member #89
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 02:40PM
Location: Zadar, Croatia
Posts: 3145
Hello guys! It/s been a while...
Recently I've learned about this newest craze in laser technology, and ever since I've wondered if a small laser of this type could be realised with minimal budget and yet be able to do useful cutting or engraving work.
Among it's many other advantages such as super high quantum efficiency, this type of resonator only costs a few dollars per meter.
Erbium doped telecom fibers seem to be common on ebay, but 980nm diodes and couplers required for them are generally prohibitively expensive.
I already own a 1W 808nm laser diode, and would most rather use it as a pump source if at all possible. This will obviously require more exotic doped fiber (Ytterbium or whatever); however, finding optics to form a resonator, as well as a way to efficiently couple the diode into the fibre (side coupling ala japanese "disk fiber lasers" appears very attractive).
Ideally one would get a fiber with built in bragg gratings forming a resonator; however this appears beyond hobbyst reach.
Telecom fibers on the other hand might be usable as amplifiers without a resonator, if another diode of different wavelength drives them...
And so on - since I don/t have time to research the subject into great depth, I was wondering whether you guys with more extensive laser knowledge could offer some advice?
In short, what is the cheapest and most practical realisation of a fiber laser you can think off for a hobbyist? Ideally, the things would converge toward something that can be pumped with cheap 808nm diode bars - however, I'm open to all suggestions! A few hundred mW of singlemode light would be nice enough for start.
or just side pumping a normal nd:yag rod with normal bar diodes. In my experience you don't want to venture from the 1064nm land, the optic's prices scales up an order of magnitude.
Registered Member #3215
Joined: Sun Sept 19 2010, 08:42PM
Location:
Posts: 780
high power fiber lasers are usually made with a master oscillator and amplifier stages, with each amplifier stage pump being controlled at nanometer (sometimes sub-nanometer) scale for the pump lambda via temperature control, and phase control of the output of each stage for modelocking
it's the pulsed nature of a modelocked laser which will provide the peak pulse power useful for cutting or engraving, and for a 20W fiber laser there can be as much as 20 pump lasers at 908nm, and the control circuit costs more than a car if you would need to build this yourself
while you could easily toss in a pump and a telecom fiber, and construct a basic EDFA amplifier, it would not provide enough power to do something more than what could a fibered 830nm 1W diode
telecom fibers are mostly used to amplify feeble DFB diode output so it will be able to make its journey through miles of fiber
This site is powered by e107, which is released under the GNU GPL License. All work on this site, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License. By submitting any information to this site, you agree that anything submitted will be so licensed. Please read our Disclaimer and Policies page for information on your rights and responsibilities regarding this site.
Fiber lasers
