| IPG Photonics Corporation Patent applications |
| Patent application number | Title | Published |
| 20120008653 | Laser System with Dynamically Stabilized Transient Wavelength and Method of Operating Same - A method and laser system for dynamically adjusting a transient wavelength of light pulses emitted by a laser includes sequential processing of transient photocurrent curves which are generated after interaction between each light pulse and wavelength-selective medium which is configured with a known spectral peak line selected in the range of the transient wavelength. The method further includes continuously processing parameters of sequentially generated curves until the processed parameters are repeatedly uniform. | 01-12-2012 |
| 20120008648 | High Power Processing Fiber Cable with Integrated Beam Expander and Method of Use - The present disclosure is a system for the protection of a fiber within a laser system. The system has a water-cooled housing supporting a termination block, which is operative to shield a protective layer of a delivery fiber from back-reflected beams of light. The termination block is manufactured from quartz and is frustconical in configuration and fuseable to the delivery fiber. The delivery fiber has a polymeric protective layer with an acceptance end and a delivery end, and passes through a washer contained within the housing; the washer has a dielectric reflective coating. The system has at least one terminal block connector which further comprises a cone termination block, a reflector, and a set of light guards. The cone termination block is spliced to an output end of the delivery fiber and produces an angle λ so as to reduce propagation of back-reflected light. The reflector is positioned so as to block additional back-reflected light from the protective layer of the delivery fiber. | 01-12-2012 |
| 20110305249 | Fiber Laser System with Controllably Alignable Optical Components Thereof - The present disclosure relates to a modular fiber laser system operative to controllably guide a beam which is launched from a feeding fiber into a process fiber so that the high-aperture component is coupled and guided in cladding of the process fiber, and a low-aperture component is coupled into the core of the fiber. The laser system further has a reflective element configured with light-reflecting and light-transmitting portions. The high-aperture component at least partially decouples from the cladding into the core so that the core radiates the high-aperture and low-aperture components. The high-aperture component is incident upon the light-reflecting portion and backreflected into the process fiber so that a sensor array, which is located between the feeding and process fibers, detects the reflected light. The laser system further includes an adjustment system operatively connected to the sensor array and configured to displace the fibers relative to one another to an alignment position after the sensor array detects a maximum signal of the reflected high-aperture component. | 12-15-2011 |
| 20110292499 | High Power Fiber Laser System with Side-Pumping Arrangement - A twin fiber laser arrangement is configured with active and passive fibers supporting respective signal and pump lights and a reflective coating surrounding the fibers along a section of the arrangement. The passive fiber has regions covered by respective protective layer and coating-free regions alternating with the layer covered regions, wherein the reflective coating is configured to overlap the protective layer which shields the end of the reflective coating from high power pump light. | 12-01-2011 |
| 20110284510 | Methods and Systems for Laser Processing of Materials - A method of processing a work material using a laser can include directing a laser beam of optical energy from a laser to a work material; processing the work material with the laser beam of optical energy in accordance with at least one processing parameter to modify the work material, the processing of the work material having associated therewith an optical signature; sensing a characteristic of the optical signature; and varying the at least one processing parameter responsive to the sensing of the characteristic of the optical signature. Other related methods are disclosed, as are laser processing systems, which systems can be used to practice the methods. | 11-24-2011 |
| 20110278265 | Laser Welding Tool - A welding tool is configured with a housing enclosing a fiber laser system which is operative to produce a weld seam for connecting two workpieces. The fiber laser system includes a focusing optic configured to focus the output beam of the system so that it propagates through an elongated slit formed in the bottom of the housing. The fiber laser system is capable to move along a predetermined path extending parallel to the longitudinal direction of the slit and limited by the perimeter thereof. The output beam is generated only when the slit sits upon at least one of the workpieces. | 11-17-2011 |
| 20110183457 | RTA for Fabrication of Solar Cells - A method of semiconductor junction formation in RTA process for fabrication of solar cells provides for delivery of inert gases in the vicinity of the Si wafer while dopant species are being driven form a dopant source into the surface of the wafer irradiated by a laser beam. The laser beam is emitted by CW- or pulsed operated lasers including fiber lasers operative to provide annealing and diffusion operation. Optionally, the passivation of the surface and formation of the antireflection coating are performed simultaneously with the penetration the dopant species. | 07-28-2011 |
| 20110158274 | Optical Device - A laser diode is configured with a substrate delimited by opposite AR and HR reflectors and a gain region. The gain region bridges the portions of the respective AR and HR reflectors and is configured with a main resonant cavity and at least one side resonant cavity. The main resonant cavity spans between the portions of the respective reflectors, and at least one additional resonant cavity extends adjacent to the main resonator cavity. The gain region is configured so that stimulated emission is generated only the main resonant cavity. Accordingly, the laser diode is operative to radiate a high-power output beam emitted through the portion of the AR reflector which is dimensioned to shape the output beam with the desired near-field. | 06-30-2011 |
| 20110097049 | Optical Fiber with Multiple Ring-Shaped Core Regions - Optical apparatus, comprising an optical fiber having a wavelength of operation, the optical fiber comprising an inner core, the inner core supporting a fundamental mode and at least first and second higher order modes (HOMs) at the wavelength of operation; a first ring-shaped core region spaced from and disposed about the inner core; a second ring-shaped core region spaced from and disposed about the ring-shaped core region; and wherein the optical fiber is configured and arranged such that the first HOM optically interacts with the first ring-shaped core region and the second HOM optically interacts with the second ring-shaped core region. | 04-28-2011 |
| 20110091178 | DOUBLE CLAD OPTICAL FIBER HAVING RING CORE SURROUNDING CORE FOR HIGH POWER OPERATION - An optical fiber apparatus having a wavelength of operatic comprises an optical fiber comprising a core; a pump cladding disposed about the core for receiving pump optical energy having a pump wavelength; and a second cladding disposed about for tending to confine pump optical energy to the pump cladding. The core can comprise a rare earth material for providing optical energy having the wavelength of operation responsive to the optical fiber receiving the pump optical energy, and the fiber can further comprise at least one ring core spaced from the core, the ring core defined by inner and outer diameters and comprising the cross sectional area therebetween. The ring core can comprise an absorbing material for absorbing optical energy having the wavelength of operation. At the wavelength of operation the optical fiber can comprise a fundamental mode that is primarily a mode of the core and at least one higher order mode (HOM) that is a mixed mode of a selected mode of the core and of a selected mode of the ring core, the selected modes being of the same azimuthal order. The mixed mode can be suppressed relative to the fundamental mode. | 04-21-2011 |
| 20110091177 | Double Clad Optical Fiber Having Ring Core Surrounding Core For High Power Operation - Optical fiber apparatus having a wavelength of operation, that comprises an optical fiber including a core comprising an active material for providing light having the operating wavelength responsive to the optical apparatus receiving pump optical energy having a pump wavelength; a cladding disposed about the core; at least one region spaced from the core; and wherein the optical fiber is configured and arranged such that at the wavelength of operation the optical fiber can propagate a plurality of modes and wherein the optical fiber comprises a fundamental mode that is primarily a mode of the core and at least one higher order mode (HOM) that is a mixed mode of a selected mode of the core and of a selected mode of the at least one region. | 04-21-2011 |
| 20110090501 | Assembly For Monitoring Power of Randomly Polarized Light - A unit for measuring a power of randomly polarized light beam is configured with spaced first and second beam splitters having respective reflective surfaces which face one another and configured to sequentially reflect a fraction of randomly polarized beam which is incident upon the first splitter. The beam splitters are dimensioned and shaped so that an output beam, reflected from the second beam splitter, has a power independent from the state of polarization of the randomly polarized beam. | 04-21-2011 |
| 20110064097 | Single-mode high power multimode fiber laser system - A high power single mode fiber laser system is configured with an active fiber including coextending multimode core (MM) and cladding around the MM core. The MM core is doped with one or more ions selected from rare earth and transitional metals and has a bottleneck cross in accordance with one aspect of the disclosure. The bottleneck cross-section includes a relatively small uniformly dimensioned input end region, a frustoconical region and a relatively large uniformly dimensioned amplifying region. The refractive step index of the MM core is configured with a central dip shaped and dimensioned along the input region so as not to disturb a Gaussian field profile of fundamental mode, gradually transform the Gaussian field profile into the ring profile of the fundamental mode and support the latter along the amplifying region. In accordance with a further aspect, the core is further provided with an output transforming region with the dip which gradually shapes the ring field profile in the Gaussian field profile further distortlessly supported by the output end region. A variety of end and side pumping arrangements are employed with the structures configured in accordance with the first and second aspects. | 03-17-2011 |
| 20110064095 | Single Mode High Power Fiber Laser System - A monolithic fiber is configured with a double bottleneck-shaped multimode (MM) core capable of supporting substantially only a fundamental mode at a given wavelength and having opposite end regions, frustoconically shaped transformer regions, which run inwards from the respective end regions, and a central uniformly dimensioned region, which bridges the transformer regions. The MM core has a refractive step-index profile which is configured with a centrally positioned dip having a variable width along the length of the fiber. The width of the dip is relatively small at the end regions of the MM core so as to support only the fundamental mode with a Gaussian profile. As the dip becomes larger along the input transformer region, it gradually shapes the Gaussian profile into the ring profile of the fundamental mode, which is guided along the central region of the MM core. The dip gradually becomes smaller along the output transition region so as to shape the ring profile back into the substantially Gaussian profile of the fundamental mode radiated from the output end region of the MM core. The refractive index profile has a ring area doped with one or more rare-earth elements and configured to amplify substantially only the fundamental mode. | 03-17-2011 |
| 20110051755 | Frequency Conversion Laser Head - A laser assembly is configured with a frequency conversion laser head operative to shift a fundamental frequency of input light to the desired frequency of an output light. The frequency conversion laser head includes a dump means operative to guide an unconverted output light at the fundamental frequency outside the case of the frequency conversion laser head. The dump means is configured with a guide optics operative to couple the output light at the fundamental frequency to a fiber terminating outside the case of the frequency conversion laser head. | 03-03-2011 |
| 20110044358 | High-Power Multi-Port Circulator - A high power (HP) fiber circulator is configured with a case enclosing a plurality of optical components which are arranged so as to define multiple ports. The fiber circulator further includes a plurality of launching and receiving fiber components each of which has spliced delivery and pigtailed passive fibers selectively coupling a HP input signal into and receiving a HP output signal from respective input and output ports. The passive fibers of each fiber component have respective protective coatings spaced from one another and each covering the cladding of the fibers. A light stripper, extending between the protective coatings, is operative to substantially remove cladding-supported light from one of the passive fibers before it reaches the protective coating of the other passive fiber. At least one of the ports includes a wavelength selective component configured to direct the HP input light beam along the desired path between the ports and including a fiber Bragg grating, volume Bragg grating or a combination of these. | 02-24-2011 |
| 20110027720 | Method and Device for Fabricating Volume Bragg Gratings - A system for recording multiple volume Bragg gratings (VBGs) in a photo thermo-refractive material is configured to implement a method which provides for irradiating the material by a coherent light through a phase mask. The system has a plurality of actuators operative to displace the light source, phase mask and material relative to one another so as to mass produce multiple units of the material each having one or more uniformly configured VBGs. | 02-03-2011 |
| 20110026102 | MOPA Seed Source With Wavelength Control For Resonant Frequency Conversion - A method and system for converting one frequency into another include a MOPA configuration radiating a light at a first frequency which is coupled into a frequency conversion unit. Further included are a control unit operative to monitor the other frequency and a pump unit operative to vary its output power provided that the monitored frequency does not substantially match a reference value stored in the control unit. The output power of the pump unit varies while the master oscillator scans its cavity in search for the desired resonant frequency. | 02-03-2011 |
| 20100322268 | Dynamic Compensator for Controlling Stresses on Fiber in Fiber Optic Cables - A dynamic compensator for a fiber optic cable having a jacket which is centered along a longitudinal axis, an elongated buffer tube surrounded by the jacket, and an elongated fiber surrounded by the buffer tube and dimensioned to move radially inwards and outwards within the buffer tube. The dynamic compensator includes a cable holder configured to receive and loop a portion of the fiber optic cable so that when the jacket elongates, the fiber extending along the loop is displaced radially inwards so as to release stresses upon end portions of the fiber, and when the jacket shrinks, the fiber is displaced radially outward to increase stresses upon the end portions of the fiber. | 12-23-2010 |
| 20100296774 | Method and Device For Suppressing High-Order Modes In MM Fibers - A laser system includes a multimode fiber (MMF) having a permanent perturbation region which is provided at the predetermined distance from the upstream end of the MMF. The perturbation region is configured so that propagating fundamental and at least one high-order mode (HOM) originated upstream from the perturbation region are split into multiple HOMs which are substantially in counterphase. Hence, the HOMs destructively interfere with and substantially cancel one another. | 11-25-2010 |
| 20100296765 | Method and Device For Suppressing Cross-Coupling Component in Multimode Fibers - A laser system includes a multimode fiber (MMF) receiving a single-mode input beam and a mechanical oscillator coupled to the MMF. The oscillator is operative to modulate a phase of interference wave by periodically extending the fiber total length at such a frequency that a cross-coupling coefficient between fundamental and at least one high-order modes is substantially minimized. | 11-25-2010 |
| 20100296156 | Two-Way Amplifier For Passive Optical Network (PON) - A two-way optical amplifier system amplifies upstream and downstream optical signals in a passive optical network (PON). The downstream optical amplifier system includes an optical amplifier (EDFA), configured and arrange to amplify the downstream optical transport signal. The upstream optical amplifier operates in burst mode and includes an upstream transport fiber receiving an upstream optical transport signal, an optical source coupled to the upstream transport fiber to generate a saturating optical input signal that is combined with the optical transport signal and establishes a baseline reference level for AGC of the optical transport signal, a PON input receiving an incoming PON RF return signals, a first optical amplifier configured and arrange to amplify with AGC and equalize the PON RF return signals with the optical transport signal, a beam combiner configured and arranged to combine said equalized PON RF return signals with said optical transport signal, and a second optical amplifier configured and arranged to amplify the optical transport signal including said equalized PON RF return signals. | 11-25-2010 |
| 20100294745 | Laser Machining Process and Apparatus - A method of thermally treating a surface of workpiece includes training a laser beam upon the surface and supplying a gaseous mixture to the surface. The mixture is configured with a process gas and at least one heat generating gas capable of having its molecules dissociate while generating an additional thermal energy which substantially raises the temperature of the surface. | 11-25-2010 |
| 20100278199 | Pulsed Laser System With Optimally Configured Saturable Absorber - A high power pulsed laser system is configured with at least two gain blocks and with at least one saturable absorber (SA) coupled to the output and input of the respective gain blocks. The SA is configured so that Qsat_sa| 11-04-2010 | |
| 20100245989 | Multi-Stage Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier With a Single Programmable Logic Device Control Circuit And Method of Controlling Thereof - A control circuit for a fiber amplifier having a first stage pump and at least one second stage pump and method of controlling thereof is disclosed. The control circuit includes a control gate controlling a current through the first stage pump. A sensor for detecting a voltage across the first stage pump and providing a measured output of the voltage is provided. The control circuit further includes a control loop configured for selectively controlling the current through the control gate in accordance with the measured output and a set reference point is also provided. | 09-30-2010 |
| 20090279574 | Frequency conversion laser head - A laser assembly is configured with a frequency conversion laser head operative to shift a fundamental frequency of input light to the desired frequency of an output light. The frequency conversion laser head includes a dump means operative to guide an unconverted output light at the fundamental frequency outside the case of the frequency conversion laser head. The dump means is configured with a guide optics operative to couple the output light at the fundamental frequency to a fiber terminating outside the case of the frequency conversion laser head. | 11-12-2009 |
| 20090142061 | Fiber optic communication system with automatic line shutdown/power reduction - A wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) fiber optic communication system is operative to transmit WDM signals between multiple nodes. Each of the nodes has a booster EDFA, and in-band (IB) and out-of-band (OB) supervisory channels operative to monitor the integrity of a transmission link by generating and detecting respective in-band and out-of-band control signals. The booster EDFA is operative to receive the multiplexed WDM and IB signals and generate an output signal carried by a plurality of fiber-optic cables between the nodes. The booster EDFA is operative to switch from an automatic gain control regime upon detecting of at least one of the IB and OB signals to an automatic power control regime upon loss of both IB and OB signals. The output signal of the EDFA in the AGC regime has a high power sufficient for being transmitted the WDM and IB signals, and has a low power in the APC regime sufficient for transmitting only the IB signal between the nodes. | 06-04-2009 |