Description

Introduction.- Optical properties and optical spectroscopy of rare-earth ions in solids.- Electron-phonon coupling in solids.- Phonon sidebands of optical transition in solids.- Optical center transitions: spontaneous and stimulated emission.- Rare-earth center in solids.- Homogeneous and inhomogeneous line broadening.- Spectroscopic parameters of optical transitions.- Sensitization of laser active optical centers.- Physical and optical properties of laser glass.- Mechanical and thermal properties of glass.- Optical properties of fibers (attenuation).- Different glass types used in fiber lasers and amplifiers.- Fiber fabrication and high quality glasses for gain fibers.- Spectroscopic properties of and gain fibers.- Propagation of light and spatial modes in optical fibers.- V number of the fiber.- Fiber dispersion.- PM fibers.- Laser beam quality ( parameter).- Fiber laser physics fundamentals.- Population inversion: three- and four-energy level systems.- Optical fiber amplifiers.- Fiber laser threshold and efficiency.- Gain and loss in laser resonators.- Fiber laser resonators.- Main fiber laser operational regimes.- CW, Q-switching and mode-locking.- Wavelength tunable lasers.- Single longitudinal mode lasers.- Main optical components for fiber lasers and fiber amplifiers design.- Laser diodes.- Principle of operation.- Main types of diode lasers.- High power diode lasers.- Fiber coupled diode lasers.- Fiber coupled PM and non-PM optical components.- High power fiber lasers.- Gain fiber pumping technology for high power fiber lasers.- Double-clad fibers and clad pumping technology.- Large mode area (LMA) fibers for high power, diffraction limited operation.- Nonlinear processes in optical fibers and their role in fiber laser and fiber amplifier technology development.- Self focusing and self trapping in optical fibers.- High power fiber laser oscillators versus low power Master-Oscillator - Power Fiber Amplifier geometry.- Beam combining of fiber lasers.- Fiber lasers' industrial applications.- Conclusions.