Light Source for Optical Pumping of a Laser-Active Medium

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The invention describes an improved light source system for the optical pumping of laser-active media, particularly for high-power lasers. The system utilizes a multi-core optical waveguide that generates several separate light beams, each passing through its own dedicated nonlinear frequency converter to shift the beam's wavelength. The beams are then recombined within the laser medium to achieve efficient, high-quality optical pumping. This architecture increases overall efficiency, allows scaling to higher powers, and offers flexible beam shaping and control.

Use CasesContent extracted from patent full text and abstract with AI.

• Optical pumping of high-power solid-state lasers, such as Titanium:Sapphire (Ti:Sa) lasers for scientific research or medical devices
• Pumping of laser amplifiers for industrial materials processing
• Generation of specific optical wavelengths (e.g., in the visible or UV range) for spectroscopy or nonlinear optics experiments
• Pump sources for lasers used in telecommunications or remote sensing
• High-efficiency pump sources in laser-based manufacturing systems

BenefitsContent extracted from patent full text and abstract with AI.

• Significantly improved efficiency of pump light generation compared to traditional systems
• Scalability to high optical power by parallelizing multiple light paths in a single compact device
• Flexible control of beam properties (wavelength, shape, polarization, timing) for tailored laser pumping
• Homogeneous and stable pumping profiles in the laser active medium, leading to better laser performance
• Mitigates issues with thermal load and nonlinearity in conventional large-core or multi-mode fiber systems

Technical Classifications (CPCs)

Inventors & Applicants

Patent Abstract

The invention relates to a light source for optically pumping a laser-active medium (7). It is an object of the invention to provide a pump light source, which is improved, in particular is more efficient, compared with the prior art, the pump light of which is generated by non-linear frequency conversion. For this purpose, according to the invention, the light source comprises a multi-core optical waveguide (1), which comprises a plurality of light-guiding cores (2) extending along the longitudinal extent of the multi-core optical waveguide (1). A frequency converter (4) is connected downstream of the multi-core optical waveguide (1) in the beam path, which is designed to convert individual beams (5) emitted from the cores (2) of the multi-core optical waveguide (1) into frequency-converted individual beams (6) in separate non-linear elements of the frequency converter (4) each assigned to the respective individual beams (5). A superposing optical unit is provided, to superimpose the frequency converted individual beams (6) in the laser-active medium (7), in order to optically pump the latter. Finally, the invention relates to a laser system, which uses such a light source as a pump light source, and to a method for optically pumping a laser-active medium (7).