Application of Thulium-doped Fiber Lasers

Fiber lasers have the advantages of ideal beam quality, ultra-high conversion efficiency, maintenance-free, high stability, high cooling efficiency, and small size, and have many other incomparable technical advantages over other lasers .

2μm thulium-doped fiber lasers are very attractive in the field of scientific research due to their high efficiency, high output power , safety for human eyes, and location in the "atmospheric window" with good transmittance. They have broad application prospects in material processing, remote sensing, biomedicine and national defense.

Application of Thulium-doped Fiber Lasers

As the optical fiber manufacturing technology becomes more mature and the cost gradually decreases, the application of 2μm band thulium-doped fiber lasers is becoming more and more extensive. The following introduces several typical applications of 2μm band thulium-doped fiber lasers.

A military

The 2μm band is located in the "atmospheric window" with good transmittance, and has broad application prospects in laser weapons . The Army can install high-power 2μm fiber lasers on ground vehicles of the Future Combat System (FCS), and then use this laser weapon to deal with air-to-ground missiles, rockets, mortars, etc. The Air Force can carry out surface-to-air missile strikes, missile defense, anti-satellite, etc. The Navy uses laser weapon systems mainly to deal with targets such as anti-ship missiles, manned aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, and small ships. The Marine Corps can achieve precise strikes while ensuring the minimum additional destructive effect. In activities such as air defense and optoelectronic confrontation, fiber lasers are more likely to be realized in the short term.

High-power 2μm fiber lasers are emerging as a promising weapons-grade solid-state laser system for future installation on transport aircraft, ground vehicles, and possibly even in portable systems .

In aircraft and missile navigation, 2μm fiber lasers can be used as lidar .

2. Biomedical Science

In medicine, it can be used as a high-precision eye scalpel. Since the water molecules in the human eye strongly absorb the 2μm wavelength, the 2μm light is absorbed by the liquid in the vitreous body before it reaches the retina. During corneal surgery, the internal structure of the eye will not be damaged.

The picture shows traditional corneal surgery and laser corneal surgery