Patent Description:
A conventional constitution example of a fiber laser apparatus using an optical fiber to which active element (rare earth elements, transition elements, or rare earth ions (Yb, Nd, Er, Pr, Dy, Ce, Tb, etc.)) is added, is shown in <FIG>. This conventional example includes a fiber <NUM> in a circular form in which a gain fiber with a length of a degree exceeding <NUM> is wound up and wound around, a ferrule <NUM> made from zirconia and provided on input and output ends of the fiber <NUM> in order to support the fiber <NUM> that tends to break easily because of being thin in thickness and weak in mechanical strength, a substrate and radiator <NUM> to support the fiber <NUM> and for discharging heat, and a cooling fan (or water-cooling device) <NUM>. There may be a case where nickel or stainless steel is used for the ferrule <NUM> to weld and fix the tip of the fiber. In order to make the laser apparatus as compact as possible, the fiber <NUM> is wound around, and in order to improve cooling efficiency, the fiber is kept from overlapping with each other. A diameter of a circle in which the fiber is wound around is about <NUM> or less. The substrate and radiator <NUM> and the fiber <NUM> come in contact with each other in such state that heat resistance is suppressed as much as possible by using heat conductive paste. In the substrate and radiator <NUM>, heat accumulated in the fiber <NUM> is discharged by using the cooling fan (or water-cooling device) <NUM> or a Peltier element. The doping concentration of rare earth in the fiber <NUM> is made low concentration and its strip length is made long, thereby to obtain two items of increase of the cooling surface and increase of the dispersion effect of heat accumulation in the direction of the fiber length, and it becomes possible to perform efficient cooling.

Patent Literature <NUM> discloses an optical fiber laser apparatus in which one long laser fiber wounded around by multiple times is embedded and fixed without clearance in transparent ultraviolet curable resin in form of a rectangular parallelepiped shape, and both ends of the laser fiber are exposed outside.

Patent Literature <NUM> describes that excitation light output by an excitation laser element is incident to a core of an aluminum fluoride-based fiber doped with Pr3+ while being condensed by an optical system for coupling and undergoing beam forming. Fluorescence discharged from the Pr3+ in the core, which has been excited by the excitation light, is resonated selectively by a pair of resonating elements formed by wavelength selective reflective films and forms a laser output. The fiber is formed from the core, cladding, and a sheath, is covered and protected by a metal tube, and has temperature increases suppressed.

Patent Literature <NUM> describes a fiber laser having a thermal controller operatively connected to one or more fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs). The thermal controller does not impart much or imparts very little mechanical stress or strain to the optical fiber in which the FBGs reside because such forces can alter the FBG performance. Rather, the thermal controller utilizes a thermally conductive semi-solid or non-Newtonian fluid to submerge/suspend a portion of the optical fiber in which FBG resides. Temperature control logic controls whether a thermoelectric heater and cooler should be directed to increase or decrease its temperature. The thermoelectric heater and cooler imparts or removes thermal energy from the FBG to efficiently control its performance without the application of mechanical stress. The fiber laser having a thermal controller generally is able to increase laser output power greater than two times the amount of output power of a similarly fabricated fiber laser free of the thermal controller(s).

Patent Literature <NUM> describes a CW fiber-laser including a gain fiber having a reflector proximity-coupled to one end, with the other end left uncoated. A laser resonator is defined by the reflector and the uncoated end of the gain-fiber. Pump-radiation from two fast-axis diode-laser bar stacks is combined and focused into the uncoated end of the gain-fiber for energizing the fiber. Laser radiation resulting from the energizing is delivered from the uncoated end of the gain-fiber and separated from the pump-radiation by a dichroic minor.

Non-Patent Literature <NUM> describes a set of guidelines for the practical design of lensed fiber for the optical coupling of semiconductor lasers in butterfly packages using laser welding. These guidelines have optimized the tradeoff between coupling efficiency and alignment tolerance. Moreover, a radius of curvature of <NUM> mum is shown to be optimal for semiconductor lasers whose divergence angles range from 5deg to 30deg. To experimentally evaluate the design, lensed fibers were assembled by a Nd:YAG laser welding technique in conventional butterfly packages and their coupling efficiencies were <NUM>%-<NUM>% without horizontal misalignment compensation.

In the conventional fiber laser apparatus shown in <FIG>, since a gain fiber with length of about <NUM> is used, it is necessary to wind around the fiber, and hence small and compact design smaller than the winding-around diameter is difficult, so that there has been a limit in making the apparatus in small compact structure. The optical fiber laser apparatus of Patent Literature <NUM> is also in the similar situation, also, in the structure where the long laser fiber wounded around by multiple times is embedded without clearance in the ultraviolet curable resin, the heat exhausting efficiency is lowered.

The small compact apparatus constitution is a subject originated from social request. In order to solve this subject, to shorten the length of the fiber (about <NUM> or less, or <NUM>, <NUM> or <NUM> or less may be permissible) is required. For the purpose of shortening the length, it is necessary to use a gain fiber to which active element (rare earth elements, transition elements, or rare earth ions (Yb, Nd, Er, Pr, Dy, Ce, Tb, etc.)) is added with higher concentration than that of the conventional apparatus. However, when the fiber length is shortened, a problem arise in heat accumulation in the fiber.

An object of the present invention is to provide a fiber laser apparatus that can avoid a problem caused by heat accumulation in the fiber, arising due to the shortening of the fiber to downsize the apparatus.

In order to realize at least one of the above-mentioned object, a fiber laser apparatus that reflects one aspect of the present invention is a fiber laser apparatus as defined in claim <NUM>.

According to the fiber laser apparatus, since the housing and the two ferrules are composed of a material with a thermal expansion coefficient approximate to that of a raw material of the fiber, it is possible to reduce heat accumulation in an end portion of the fiber during the apparatus operation, to avoid problems caused by the heat accumulation. Namely, since the housing and the two ferrules may be composed of a material having a high thermal conductivity, the thermal conductivity is increased than that of the conventional material, for example, ceramics, such as zirconia and the like. Accordingly, heat accumulation on the end portions of the fiber can be reduced. Also, since the material has a thermal expansion coefficient approximate to that of the raw material of the fiber, even if the fiber accumulates heat, it is possible to reduce the stress received from the housing and the two ferrules due to a difference in the thermal expansion coefficients. In this way, since the problem caused by the heat accumulation of the fiber due to the shortening of the fiber can be prevented, it is possible to realize downsizing of the apparatus by shortening of the fiber.

According to an embodiment, the two ferrules and the housing are composed of a material having an optional thermal conductivity of 90W/mK or more and the first thermal expansion coefficient is <NUM>×<NUM>-<NUM> to <NUM>×<NUM>-<NUM>/K.

According to this embodiment, since the two ferrules and the housing are composed of a material that may have a thermal conductivity of <NUM> W/mK or more and a first thermal expansion coefficient of <NUM>×<NUM>-<NUM> to <NUM>×<NUM>-<NUM>/K, it is possible to reduce heat accumulation in an end portion of the fiber during the apparatus operation, to avoid problems caused by the heat accumulation. Namely, when the housing and the two ferrules are composed of a metal material having a high thermal conductivity of <NUM> W/mK or more, the thermal conductivity is increased than that of the conventional material, for example, ceramics, such as zirconia and the like. Accordingly, heat accumulation on the end portions of the fiber can be reduced. Also, since the material has a thermal expansion coefficient of <NUM>×<NUM>-<NUM> to <NUM>×<NUM>-<NUM>/K approximate to that of the raw material of the fiber, even if the fiber accumulates heat, it is possible to reduce the stress received from the housing and the two ferrules due to a difference in the thermal expansion coefficients. In this way, since the problem caused by the heat accumulation of the fiber due to the shortening of the fiber can be prevented, it is possible to realize downsizing of the apparatus by shortening of the fiber.

In the above-mentioned fiber laser apparatus, it is preferable that the fiber has a length of <NUM> or less, the raw material of the fiber is a fluoride glass material, and the fiber includes a fiber core in which a doping concentration of Pr element is <NUM> to 5000ppm.

Also, it is preferable that the above-mentioned fiber laser apparatus is configured to perform a laser oscillation with any one or two of wavelengths of <NUM> ± <NUM>, <NUM> ± <NUM>, and <NUM> ± <NUM>.

According to the fiber laser apparatus of the present invention, since the problem caused by heat accumulation of the fiber due to shortening of the fiber can be avoided, it becomes possible to realize downsizing of the apparatus.

Hereinafter, an embodiment for executing the present invention will be described with reference to drawings. <FIG> is an optical path diagram showing schematically a fiber laser apparatus according to the present embodiment. <FIG> is a front view showing schematically a housing in which a fiber in <FIG> is accommodated, and <FIG> is a side elevation showing schematically the housing. <FIG> is an illustration showing a ferrule attached to an end of the fiber in <FIG>.

As shown in <FIG>, a fiber laser apparatus <NUM> according to the present embodiment includes semiconductor lasers <NUM> and 11A, lenses <NUM> and 12A, a wavelength plate <NUM>, a polarization beam splitter <NUM> in which a laser beam passed through the lens <NUM> from the semiconductor laser <NUM> and a laser beam passed through the lens 13A and the wavelength plate <NUM> from the semiconductor laser 11A and provided with a phase difference of <NUM> degrees, enter and are combined, an anamorphic prism pair <NUM> in which the laser beam from the polarization beam splitter <NUM> enters and emits, and total reflection mirrors <NUM> and <NUM> that totally reflects the laser beam from the anamorphic prism pair <NUM>.

The fiber laser apparatus <NUM> further includes a lens <NUM> in which the laser beam from the total reflection mirror <NUM> enters, a short-length type fiber <NUM> in which the laser beam from the lens <NUM> enters, a lens <NUM> in which the laser beam from the fiber <NUM> enters, and an emission mirror <NUM> that emits the laser beam from the lens <NUM>.

For example, when an oscillation wavelength of the semiconductor laser is set to <NUM> to excite the fluoride fiber, lights are emitted with strong spectrum of wavelengths of <NUM> (green), <NUM> (orange), and <NUM> (red)). Where, for example, <NUM> is selected with coatings on an incident end face 19a of the fiber <NUM> and the emission mirror <NUM>, a red fundamental wave laser beam is output. Also, for example, where <NUM> and <NUM> are selected, orange and red fundamental wave laser beams are output.

In order to design the fiber laser apparatus <NUM> with a smaller compact structure, it is required to shorten the fiber length by making concentration of rare earth element in the gain fiber higher. For that purpose, a heat exhausting means capable of effectively avoiding heat accumulation in the fiber <NUM> caused by the length shortening, becomes a problem to be solved.

As shown in <FIG>, an apparatus constitution as such a heat exhausting means is configured so that ferrules <NUM> and <NUM> are bonded onto both ends of the fiber <NUM> length-shortened with addition of high-concentration active element (rare earth elements, transition elements etc., or rare earth ions (Yb, Nd, Er, Pr, Dy, Ce, Tb, etc.)) so as to absorb excitation light sufficiently, and then, the ferrules <NUM> and <NUM> and the fiber <NUM> are accommodated in the housing <NUM> in a state where the ferrules <NUM> and <NUM> are brought in contact with side plates 30c and 30d respectively on both sides of the housing <NUM> to suppress heat resistance as much as possible by using a heat conductive paste.

That is, as shown in <FIG>, the housing <NUM> has a structure divided into two parts, and when an upper part 30a and a lower part 30b are butted each other, the ferrules <NUM> and <NUM> are positioned at semicircular cut-out portions formed in the respective side plates 30c and 30d so as to be clamped and supported between the semicircular cut-out portions. As shown in <FIG> and <FIG>, the fiber <NUM> is inserted into a through hole of each of the ferrules <NUM> and <NUM> with the application of adhesive bond.

The fiber <NUM> has a length of about <NUM> or less, and the length may be <NUM>, <NUM>, or <NUM> or less. Also, for example, the fiber <NUM> is made of fluoride glass material as raw material, and includes preferably a fiber core in which doping concentration of Pr element is <NUM> to 5000ppm.

By constituting the ferrules <NUM> and <NUM> from metal (for example, copper, aluminum, stainless steel, nickel, their alloys, etc.) that are high thermal conductive materials, it is possible to realize (<NUM>) efficient thermal conducting from the end portion of the fiber, (<NUM>) protecting of the fiber end portion which are apt to break easily because of being thin in diameter and weak in mechanical strength, (<NUM>) facilitating of polishing work for fiber end face, and (<NUM>) facilitating of formation of dielectric coating film onto fiber end face.

Also, the housing <NUM> is composed of metal material (for example, copper, aluminum, stainless steel, nickel, their alloys, etc.) that are high thermal conductive materials, so that the housing <NUM> can efficiently conduct heat generated in the fiber <NUM> from the ferrules <NUM> and <NUM> brought in contact with the side plates 30c and 30d of the housing <NUM> to suppress thermal resistance as much as possible and can radiate such heat. For this reason, the housing <NUM> also functions as heat radiator. The heat radiated from the housing <NUM> is discharged by using a cooling fan, a water-cooling device, or a Peltier element provided in the housing <NUM>, whereby heat accumulated in the fiber <NUM> can be discharged effectively.

Moreover, the housing <NUM> and the ferrules <NUM> and <NUM> are constituted from materials having a thermal expansion coefficient coinciding with or approximating to that of the raw materials of the fiber <NUM>, whereby it is possible to prevent breakage of fiber end surface and dielectric multilayer coating surface caused by a difference in thermal expansion coefficient and generated by heat accumulation at the time of high output operation in the apparatus.

As mentioned above, the respective materials constituting the housing <NUM> and the ferrules <NUM> and <NUM> have a thermal expansion coefficient approximate to that of raw material of the fiber <NUM> and a high thermal conductivity, whereby it is possible to avoid problems caused by heat accumulation in the fiber due to length-shortening of the fiber.

Next, the present invention is described concretely on the basis of the example and the preliminary study example. The present invention should not be limited to the example.

First, the preliminary study example having studied in advance with regard to the present invention is described. In this preliminary study example, a fiber laser apparatus shown in <FIG> was used. This apparatus has a constitution in which the semiconductor laser 11A, the lens 12A, and the wavelength plate <NUM> in <FIG> were omitted. The fiber <NUM> was accommodated by using the ferrules <NUM> and <NUM> in the housing <NUM> having structure similar to that in <FIG> and <FIG> and was fixed.

The fiber <NUM> was a fluoride fiber with fiber diameter of <NUM> and fiber length of <NUM>. In the fiber core, Pr was doped with concentration of <NUM> ppm. The ferrules <NUM> and <NUM> made from zirconia were mounted on both ends of the fiber <NUM>. Each of the ferrules <NUM> and <NUM> had outside diameter of <NUM>, length of <NUM>, and inside diameter of <NUM>. After the fiber <NUM> was inserted into the ferrules, the fiber <NUM> was adhered with a resin adhesive agent. Also, the fiber <NUM> and the ferrules <NUM> and <NUM> are supported and fixed with the housing <NUM> made from aluminum for heat conducting and cooling. With this structure, dielectric multilayer coating of high reflection with wavelength of <NUM> is applied on an excitation side end face of the fiber <NUM> and dielectric multilayer coating of non-reflection with wavelength of <NUM> is applied on the emission mirror <NUM>, and a laser resonator is constituted with <NUM>% of the emission mirror. According to such constitution, as shown in <FIG>, a fiber laser output of <NUM>. 425W was attained, so that improvement of the output was confirmed. However, phenomenon that the output (wavelength of <NUM>) was saturated in the excitation semiconductor laser input of <NUM>. 5W with wavelength of <NUM>, was observed.

It is a thermal saturation phenomenon caused by heat accumulation in the fiber end surface that it is considered as the cause. In the constitution of the conventional fiber laser apparatus shown in <FIG>, since the active element doping concentration in the gain fiber is low, any problem does not occur. But, by shortening the fiber length for downsizing, remarkable heat accumulation becomes to appear on the excitation end surface of the fiber.

In the case where the laser operation is performed for a long time, temperature will rise in the ferrule itself. Therefore, a mechanism for dissipating the heat in the ferrule efficiently is needed. On the other hand, when the temperature at the tip of the fiber rises, the refractive index of the fiber will change. The light transmitting in the inside of the fiber is confined by a difference in refractive index between core material and cladding material. But, since the refractive index changes due to change of temperature vary the difference in refractive index, the mode in which the light propagates in the inside of the fiber varies. In the case where temperatures in the tip portion and the central portion of the fiber are different from each other, the propagation mode changes while the light is propagating in the inside of the fiber. Thus, a part of the light cannot propagate and is emitted out of the fiber. As a result, the temperature change in the propagating direction of the light in the fiber causes a decrease in transmission efficiency. Therefore, a mechanism for making the temperature uniform by dissipating the heat in the tip portion and diffusing the heat to the whole fiber, is needed. It is thought that a decrease in absorption coefficient relative to excitation light, a decrease in induced emission cross section, a shift in oscillation wavelength, an increase in loss by refractive index change, a deterioration in beam quality by heat birefringence, and the like, take place due to these causes, and a thermal saturation phenomenon appears.

Also, due to the excessive heat accumulation, the fiber receives stress caused by a difference in thermal expansion coefficient from the housing and the ferrules, thus the output is decreased, and the excessive heat accumulation may lead to destruction of the fiber end surface and the coating. Accordingly, the excessive heat accumulation is a problem to be solved.

In order to reduce the thermal saturation phenomena that has become clear in the above-described preliminary study example, the following improvement has been made in the present example.

Concretely, in <FIG>, the fiber <NUM> being a laser medium is a fluoride fiber and has a fiber diameter of <NUM> and a fiber length of <NUM>. Pr of 3000ppm is added to the fiber core. Onto both ends of the fiber, the ferrules <NUM> and <NUM> made from nickel are mounted. The ferrule has an outside diameter of <NUM> and a length of <NUM>. The ferrule has an inside diameter of <NUM>. After the fiber was inserted into the ferrule, the fiber was adhered with a resin adhesive agent. The fiber <NUM> and the ferrules <NUM> and <NUM> are supported and fixed by the housing <NUM> made from copper. With this structure, dielectric multilayer coating of high reflection with a wavelength of <NUM> is applied onto an excitation side end face 19a of the fiber <NUM>, and dielectric multilayer coating of a reflection factor of <NUM>% with a wavelength of <NUM> is applied onto the emission mirror <NUM>, thus a laser resonator is constituted.

The thermal conductivities of fluoride fiber, nickel, and copper are <NUM>. 898W/mK, 91W/mK, and 403W/mK, respectively. Moreover, the thermal expansion coefficients of fluoride fiber, nickel, and copper are <NUM>×<NUM>-<NUM>/K, <NUM>×<NUM>-<NUM>/K, and <NUM>×<NUM>-<NUM>/K, respectively. Nickel and copper have a high thermal conductivity while having a thermal expansion coefficient approximate to that of the fluoride fiber. As a result, as shown in <FIG>, the fiber laser output (a wavelength of <NUM>) of <NUM>. 0W with an efficiency of about <NUM>% was obtained relative to the excitation semiconductor laser input of <NUM>. 0W with a wavelength of <NUM>, and the output was not saturated.

In the structure in which zirconia material was used for the ferrule and aluminum material was used for the housing as described in the preliminary study example, the laser output was saturated with the fiber laser output of <NUM>. 425W relative to the excitation semiconductor laser input of <NUM>. 5W, and an output more than that was not obtained. This is caused by decrease in absorption coefficient relative to the wavelength of the excitation semiconductor laser, decrease in induced emission cross section of the fiber material, and increase in propagation loss, because heat is accumulated in the fiber to increase the temperature due to the low thermal conductivity of the ferrule made from zirconia. On the other hand, the ferrule and the housing each having high thermal conductivity and thermal expansion coefficient approximate to that of the fiber material are replaced in the present example, whereby the increase of the laser output and the improvement of the efficiency were attained.

As mentioned in the above, the embodiment and the example for executing the present invention have been described. The present invention should not be limited to these embodiment and example, and various kinds of modification are possible within the scope of the present invention, which is determined by the claims. For example, the constitution of the fiber laser apparatus shown in <FIG> is an example, and hence other constitution may be permissible.

Also, other materials can be used as the materials that constitute the ferrule and the housing, if the thermal expansion coefficient is approximate to the thermal expansion coefficient of the fiber and it has a high thermal conductivity of, for example, 90W/mK or more.

Claim 1:
A fiber laser apparatus (<NUM>) comprising:
a short length type fiber (<NUM>) to which an active element is added and that has a length of <NUM> or less;
two ferrules (<NUM>, <NUM>) attached to both ends of the fiber (<NUM>); and
a housing (<NUM>) comprising an upper part (30a) and a lower part (30b) that respectively have semicircular cut-out portions butted against each other to form a hole, and configured to accommodate the fiber (<NUM>) and support the fiber (<NUM>) in the hole with the two ferrules (<NUM>, <NUM>),
wherein an outer circumference of each of the two ferrules (<NUM>, <NUM>) contacts an inner circumference of the hole such that the housing (<NUM>) discharges heat generated in the fiber (<NUM>) from side plates (30c, 30d) of the housing (<NUM>),
wherein a part of each of the two ferrules (<NUM>, <NUM>) protrudes outside from each of the side plates (30c, 30d),
wherein the fiber (<NUM>) has a coating film formed on at least one (19a) of the ends of the fiber (<NUM>), the ends of the fiber (<NUM>) being respectively located at ends of the two ferrules (<NUM>, <NUM>),
wherein each of the housing (<NUM>) and the two ferrules (<NUM>, <NUM>) is composed of a material having a first thermal expansion coefficient that is equal to or has a predetermined difference from a second thermal expansion coefficient of a raw material of the fiber (<NUM>), and
wherein the predetermined difference between the first and second thermal expansion coefficient is within - <NUM>×<NUM>-<NUM> to <NUM>×<NUM>-<NUM>/K.