Thulium Puts Power Behind Eyesafe Fiber Lasers

One of the key advantages of fiber laser technology stems from the high conversion efficiency of the multimode pump radiation into high-brightness, single-mode laser light within the doped fiber lasing medium. Ytterbium-doped fiber lasers operating around 1μm often achieve around 80% pump- to-laser conversion efficiency and corresponding wall plug efficiencies over 25%, depending on the pump diodes used in the laser. As a result, high-power CW fiber lasers are more compact and require less cooling than a traditional solid-state laser of similar power.