You will hear about an optical fiber draw tower in operation at LLNL that is researching new designs and applications for optical fibers. Optical fibers were originally developed for the telecom industry but new designs and fabrication techniques that can be researched using the LLNL draw tower are enabling uses in areas such as surgery, industrial machining, high power lasers and optical sensors

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This work was performed under the auspices of the
U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory under contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.
Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC
Dr. Jay W. Dawson, Fiber Technologies Group Leader

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 Fibers
• Diffraction limited beams
• Robust, flexible transport
• Operate in extreme environments
and insensitive to electro-magnetic
interference
 Fiber Lasers
• Low maintenance & high reliability
• Efficient (>30% wall-plug)
• High average powers (kW)

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Telecom Flexible Delivery for
Industrial Machining
High Power Laser Sources
Distributed Sensors
Short-pulse surgery
laser delivery
Sensors for Oil and Gas
High Voltage Current Sensors
These are examples of a wide array of potential applications in
flexible light transport, sensors and components for laser systems.

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Cross section: 125 μm O.D. Very low losses attainable
Strong and Flexible 50% transmission over 30km

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Diffraction
Photonic crystal fiber
Refraction
Conventional fiber

6. 5 W at 44% optical efficiency
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P = 0.065 W P = 1.1 W P = 2.4 W Optical Near Field
Optical Far Field
250 μm
200 μm
10 μm X 120 μm
Yb3+ Slab
Waveguide
Secondary
Waveguide for
Diode Pump Light
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
0 5 10 15 20
Output Power, W
Coupled Pump Power, W
Example: investigation of
rectangular core fiber lasers
for improved power scaling

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Proposed Design Calculated Waveguide Modes

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Computer Model Manufacturing Design

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Raw Material
Draw to ~1mm
rods and tubes
Stack to Fiber Design
Final Preform in
Furnace
Fiber Production
Draw
Tower

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11. Passive
Ribbon Fiber
Yb3+ Ribbon Fiber
UV Rad Hard
Qualification Fiber
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215 μm
200 μm
250 μm
250 μm
Hollow Core Cane
(preform)
Negative Curvature
Core
for mid-IR

12.  Hollow core waveguides for high power transport
 Short wavelength fiber lasers (<1μm)
 UV radiation hard fibers for NIF
 Three SBIR collaborations
• 2 defense, 1 medical
• Joint proposal development opportunities
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hollow single mode
R&D 100 Award
 Discerned fiber limits1
 Pioneered ribbon fiber2
 Launched high-order modes3
(R&D 100 Award, 2013)
 Power scaling in ribbon lasers4
 Designed new type of fiber5,6,7
 Developing a 1,000+ core
fiber for the National Ignition Facility
1. J. Dawson et al, Opt. Exp. 16 13240-13266 (2008).
2. D. Drachenberg et al, Opt. Exp. 21 11257-11269 (2013).
3. A. Sridharan et al, Opt. Exp. 20 28792-28800 (2012).
4. D. Drachenberg et al, submitted to Opt. Express (2013).
5. M. Messerly et al, Opt. Exp. 21 12683-12698 (2013).
6. M. Messerly et al, Optics Letters 18 3329-3332 (2013).
7. P. Pax et al, submitted to Optics Letters (2013).

14.  We have the flexibility and motivation to work on “out
of the box” designs that commercial vendors may be
less interested in pursuing in early stage development
 We bring a wide array of expertise to new fiber
development and are very open about the
manufacturing process and limitations
 Do you have a problem where a novel optical fiber can
help?
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory LLNL-PRES-773886
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Catherine Elizondo
elizondo1@llnl.gov