Fiber Pumped Ho:Sesquioxide Ceramic Materials for Short Pulse Thin disk Lasers (Final Report)
- Radiation Monitoring Devices, Inc., Watertown, MA (United States)
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Problem Being Addressed Laser based electron accelerators are innovative tools to obtain GeV to TeV energies for high-energy particle physics experiments. The ability to make full use of these accelerators is limited by the presently available lasers. The development of such lasers puts stringent challenges on the very limits of the laser materials themselves, which in turn limits the ability of the researchers using these accelerators. How this Problem is Being Addressed The goal of this project is to develop ceramic thin-disk gain media for fiber pumped, short-pulse lasers. It addresses issues limiting Type I lasers. We are investigating Ho:Y2O3 ceramic to achieve good optical, thermal and mechanical properties. To optimize the gain profile we are using a novel doping profile. To minimize the heat burden on the disk, we are using thulium fiber pump lasers since the 1.94-micron Tm emission wavelength is an excellent match to the absorption spectrum of Ho. What was done in Phase I In Phase I, RMD and LLNL, established a theoretical model for a composite thin disk with a gradient dopant profile, developed synthesis and purification processes for sesquioxide nanopowders, and fabricated and characterized prototype transparent Y2O3/Ho:Y2O3 composite thin disks. We identified the research needed to optimize the processing to improve the optical quality of the disks. What is planned for the Phase II In Phase II we will further optimize the ceramics processing and refine the graded dopant concentration to optimize the gain profile. We will develop laser designs for the required short pulse length and high repetition rate. By the end of Phase II we will demonstrate a fiber pumped, face cooled thin disk laser with 3 micro Joule pulse energy. Commercial Applications and Benefits Our first market will be national labs and universities that will employ our technology for scientific research in current and future accelerators. Global revenue for laser systems used in the scientific research and military markets grew from $$\$$ $825 million in 2015 to $$\$$ $1.28 billion in 2018 and is forecast to reach $$\$$ $1.33 billion in 2019. The second market is materials processing and lithography. These markets include metal processing and semiconductor and microelectronics manufacturing. The lithography equipment segment is used to print complex circuit patterns on silicon wafers. Global revenue for laser systems used in materials processing grew from $$\$$ $3.8 billion in 2015 to $$\$$ $6.16 billion in 2018 and is forecast to reach $$\$$ $6.4 billion in 2019. RMD estimates cumulative sales revenues of $$\$$ $48.03 million during the first 10 years of commercialization.
- Research Organization:
- Radiation Monitoring Devices, Inc., Watertown, MA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- Contributing Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0020936
- OSTI ID:
- 1778246
- Type / Phase:
- SBIR (Phase I)
- Report Number(s):
- Award No. DE-SC0020936 Phase I Final Technical Report
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Efficient 2-Micron Laser Driver for Laser Acceleration
Findings on Subtask 3.1 - Bakken Rich Gas Enhanced Oil Recovery Project