Ultrafast Optics: Vector Cavity Lasers — Physics and Technology

Fiber lasers have found widespread applications in industrial material processing, scientific research and military systems due to their advantages of easy maintenance, excellent stability, compact size and low cost. One characteristic of fiber lasers, compared to other types of lasers, is that strong light is confined to propagating a long distance in a fiber core that has a very small cross-sectional area. This has the consequence that the nonlinear light interaction with the matter has a very long length. This results in the strength of all nonlinear optical processes being strongly amplified. This means that a conventionally weak, nonlinear optical effect can become significant. Therefore, apart from the practical applications, fiber lasers also constitute an ideal platform for the exploration of various complex nonlinear dynamics.