High-Power Ultrafast LaSErs using tapered double-clad fibre

A breakthrough concept in high-power industrial lasers. Laser technology continues to have an almost unlimited number of applications. Following widespread developments using continuous-wave lasers, breakthroughs in high-power short-pulsed lasers were recently recognised by the Nobel Prize in Physics 2018 to Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses. Although, a relatively short time ago, the femtosecond laser was a tool consigned to the laboratory; now these systems have developed the reliability necessary for use in industry. Ultrafast pulsed lasers have seen exponential growth with the number of filed patents increasing five-fold from about 100 to 500 per year (Mottay, 2013). Several advanced niche applications have benefited from fs-laser processing including in photonics (Misawa and Juodkazis, 2006), microelectronics (Rizvi, Karnakis and Gower, 2001), MEMS (Bellouard, 2011) and many other markets