Innovative High Energy Laser

This Phase II-SBIR proposal is directed toward developing an affordable high-energy fiber laser for the US Army Arsenal for igniting large caliber guns. The proposed laser is a diode-pumped, double-clad, Yb-doped multicore fiber array arranged in twoisometric rings, which are embedded in a very large cladding having a very large NA, so that a pump laser with fairly large beam spot can be injected efficiently into the inner cladding from the side-wall along the length of the fiber. Under this PhaseII-SBIR, a prototype will be built, packaged, characterized and delivered to the Army. The goal of this project is to demonstrate a reliable and maintenance-free high-energy fiber laser, emitting a high-brightness and diffraction-limited beam with anoutput power greater than 200W in a spot size of about 50 microns. Through this effort, not only a high-energy fiber laser will be developed specially for the Army's application, but also a sound foundation will be laid for commercializing an affordableindustrial laser, which will provide a high-brightness output in the power range from 100W to 1,000W for a variety of industrial applications.Diode-pumped multicore fiber laser can provide very high output power with a high-brightness anddiffraction-limited beam at an affordable cost. It is therefore very competitive in the market place as compared to diode-pumped solid-state lasers and CO2 lasers presently employed by the industries for high speed and precision manufacturing.