Faraday Isolators for 2-Micron Lasers
The advent of kilowatt-class UFL systems requires the availability of large-aperture, low-loss Faraday isolators (FI) for protecting laser subsystems from the influence of backward-travelling light while handling high-repetition rate pulses at high-peak power.
Aqwest is developing a large aperture FIs for optical isolation in Tm lasers operating in the vicinity of 2 microns. The Aqwest FI offers innovative configuration, advanced thermal management, and straight-forward scaling approach.
Prospective alternative applications for visible tunable lasers include wavelength-agile lasers for active remote sensing.
References
- Cheng, “Optical Isolators, Circulators” in Encyclopedia of Physical Science and Technology (Third Edition), Academic Press (2003)
- Khazanov, N.F. Andreev, A. Malshakov, O. Palashov, A.K. Poteomkin, A. Sergeev, A.A. Shaykin, V. Zelenogorsky, I.A. Ivanov, R. Amin, and G. Mueller, “Compensation of therm. induced modal distortions in Faraday isolators,” IEEE JQE, 40, 10, p.1500 (2004)
- E.A.E. Khazanov, “Compensation of thermally induced polarisation distortions in Faraday isolators,” Quantum Electronics, Vol. 29, No. 1, 59 (1999)
- I. B. Mukhin and E. A. Khazanov, “Use of thin discs in Faraday isolators for high-average-power lasers,” Quantum Electronics, Vol. 34, No. 10, 973 (2004)