Novel Fiber Design

Fibers are the key part of advanced fiber laser systems since their characteristics directly determine the output parameters of any experimental or commercial setup. Therefore, understanding and improving the fiber design is an essential part of fiber laser development.

Our research group is mainly focused on fiber designs for pulsed high-power fiber lasers and, consequently, mitigating parasitic nonlinear and thermal effects is the main objective. In order to achieve this advanced fiber designs are required. These should ensure effective single-mode operation and resilience to thermo-optical effects. Examples of such advanced fiber designs developed in our group are the micro-structured Large-Pitch Fiber (LPF) and the recently introduced multicore fibers (MCF), which can be seen in the picture.

The process of designing a fiber is a challenging but rewarding task that involves many different skills. The process starts with the development of suitable numeric tools for the simulation and evaluation of novel designs. It continues with the optimization of promising designs to achieve the desired functionality. Finally, the design process involves extensive experimental work aimed at evaluating the actual performance of the new fibers and its inclusion and test in experimental setups.