Application and Power Scaling
Fiber disk lasers are used for cutting of metal (up to few mm thick), welding and folding. The disk-shaped configuration allows efficient heat dissipation (usually, the disks are cooled with flowing water)); allowing power scaling. When the increase of the length of the fiber becomes limited by stimulated scattering, additional power scaling can be achieved by combining several fiber disk lasers into a stack.
The spiral-coiled configuration is not the only possible arrangement; any other scheme of stacking of optical fibers with lateral delivery of pump can also be called a fiber disk laser, even if the resulting shape of the device is not circular. The term fiber disk laser applies to the concept of lateral delivery of pump to the active optical fiber rather than specifically to a disk-shaped device. The optimal shape of the fiber disk laser may depend on the properties of the beam of pump available, as well as on the specific application.
Read more about this topic: Fiber Disk Laser
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