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High power, electronically-controlled, source of user-defined vortex and vector light beams based on a few-mode fiber amplifier

High power, electronically-controlled, source of user-defined vortex and vector light beams based on a few-mode fiber amplifier
High power, electronically-controlled, source of user-defined vortex and vector light beams based on a few-mode fiber amplifier

Optical angular momentum (OAM)-based structured light beams provide an additional degree of freedom for practical applications ranging from optical communication to laser-based material processing. Many techniques exist for generating such beams within laser sources and these primarily rely upon the use of specially designed optical components that limit laser power scaling and ready tunability of the topological charge and polarization of the output OAM beams. Here we show that some of these limitations can be overcome by employing a computer controlled reflective phase-only spatial light modulator to adaptively tailor the input (and subsequent output) beam wavefront and polarization in a few-mode fiber amplifier. In this way modal-coupling-induced beam distortion within the fiber amplifier can be mitigated and we are able to generate at will any desired supported spatial mode guided in the fiber, including conventional linearly polarized (LP) modes, scalar OAM modes, and cylindrical vector modes, at average powers >10 W and with a peak power of >11 kW. Our results pave the way to the realization of practical high-power structured laser sources with tunable chirality and polarization.

Fiber lasers and amplifiers, Structured light, adaptive beam shaping, optical vortex
2327-9125
856-864
Lin, Di
d858c2c7-6eab-49d8-87e7-6b71d9bad013
Carpenter, Joel
78628132-c944-4247-8b1b-ba29cc82d855
Feng, Yutong
8257a816-5e4a-47bc-8aa2-e364c4d6e21e
Jung, Yongmin
6685e51e-be47-4c96-8c4b-65aee3b5126d
Alam, Shaif-Ul
2b6bdbe5-ddcc-4a88-9057-299360b93435
Richardson, David J.
ebfe1ff9-d0c2-4e52-b7ae-c1b13bccdef3
Lin, Di
d858c2c7-6eab-49d8-87e7-6b71d9bad013
Carpenter, Joel
78628132-c944-4247-8b1b-ba29cc82d855
Feng, Yutong
8257a816-5e4a-47bc-8aa2-e364c4d6e21e
Jung, Yongmin
6685e51e-be47-4c96-8c4b-65aee3b5126d
Alam, Shaif-Ul
2b6bdbe5-ddcc-4a88-9057-299360b93435
Richardson, David J.
ebfe1ff9-d0c2-4e52-b7ae-c1b13bccdef3

Lin, Di, Carpenter, Joel, Feng, Yutong, Jung, Yongmin, Alam, Shaif-Ul and Richardson, David J. (2021) High power, electronically-controlled, source of user-defined vortex and vector light beams based on a few-mode fiber amplifier. Photonics Research, 9 (5), 856-864. (doi:10.1364/PRJ.412342).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Optical angular momentum (OAM)-based structured light beams provide an additional degree of freedom for practical applications ranging from optical communication to laser-based material processing. Many techniques exist for generating such beams within laser sources and these primarily rely upon the use of specially designed optical components that limit laser power scaling and ready tunability of the topological charge and polarization of the output OAM beams. Here we show that some of these limitations can be overcome by employing a computer controlled reflective phase-only spatial light modulator to adaptively tailor the input (and subsequent output) beam wavefront and polarization in a few-mode fiber amplifier. In this way modal-coupling-induced beam distortion within the fiber amplifier can be mitigated and we are able to generate at will any desired supported spatial mode guided in the fiber, including conventional linearly polarized (LP) modes, scalar OAM modes, and cylindrical vector modes, at average powers >10 W and with a peak power of >11 kW. Our results pave the way to the realization of practical high-power structured laser sources with tunable chirality and polarization.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 9 March 2021
Published date: 30 April 2021
Additional Information: Publisher Copyright: Journal © 2021 Chinese Laser Press.
Keywords: Fiber lasers and amplifiers, Structured light, adaptive beam shaping, optical vortex

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 447915
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/447915
ISSN: 2327-9125
PURE UUID: 61eb4dce-a768-42b4-afc1-c554a086eb98
ORCID for Di Lin: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-5025-9051
ORCID for Yutong Feng: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-6839-2106
ORCID for Yongmin Jung: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-9054-4372
ORCID for David J. Richardson: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7751-1058

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 26 Mar 2021 17:30
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 06:25

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Contributors

Author: Di Lin ORCID iD
Author: Joel Carpenter
Author: Yutong Feng ORCID iD
Author: Yongmin Jung ORCID iD
Author: Shaif-Ul Alam

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