Comparing ultrafast fibre and tuneable ultrafast lasers

Fibre lasers are a special type of solid-state laser, often having attractive features such as ultrashort pulse duration and high peak power in combination with high beam quality. Ultrafast fibre lasers have many advantages. Their optical efficiency is typically significantly better, enabling them to have a compact layout, making them easy to install, use, and operate. Traditional ultrafast tuneable laser systems often require water cooling of the gain crystal, either with active chillers or closed loop systems where the gain crystal is pumped with a high-power source and so heats up significantly.

Unlike tuneable ultrafast lasers, ultrafast fibre lasers are less sensitive to thermal effects and external disturbances making them more experimentally versatile. Furthermore, the flexibility of the optical fibres at the heart of fibre lasers enables customisation of the optical path, permitting design optimisation to suit different experiments.

A tuneable high-power laser is a type of laser designed to emit coherent light over a large range of wavelengths. The ability of being able to tune performance into specific wavelengths makes these lasers particularly useful in applications requiring enhanced flexibility and performance optimisation. If this flexibility is not necessary, fixed wavelength fibre lasers offer significant financial, technical and useability advantages.

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