Berlin 2014 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 8: Laser development and applications II
Q 8.6: Talk
Monday, March 17, 2014, 15:15–15:30, DO26 207
Curved Yb:YAG waveguide lasers for integrated optical devices — •Thomas Calmano1, Sebastian Müller1, Christian Kränkel1,2, and Günter Huber1,2 — 1Institut für Laser-Physik, Universität Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg — 2The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg
Waveguides are basic components for integrated optical devices. With the femtosecond (fs) laser writing technique waveguiding structures can be inscribed directly into a wide range of dielectric materials. By utilizing substrate materials doped with laser ions for the waveguide fabrication, active optical devices can be realized. These include lossless devices in which the losses are compensated by gain as well as waveguide lasers and amplifiers. Furthermore, this fabrication technique can be applied to rare-earth doped crystalline laser gain media, which exhibit excellent thermomechanical properties and a large gain due to high peak emission cross sections. In recent years we demonstrated highly efficient fs-laser written Yb:YAG waveguide lasers with slope efficiencies of nearly 80% and output powers of 1.06 W. However, for more complex optical devices, like beam splitters, couplers or ring lasers, curved structures are required. Here we report about our results on curved Yb:YAG waveguide lasers fabricated by the fs-laser writing technique. We could achieve slope efficiencies of 51% with waveguides with radii of curvature of 20 mm and more than 60% with structures with radii of more than 60 mm. Additionally, future perspectives and applications of curved Yb:YAG waveguide lasers will be discussed.