A laser machining apparatus includes an output ratio control unit that changes an output ratio between a first laser beam and a second laser beam having different propagation characteristics; a superimposing optical system that multiplexes the first laser beam and the second laser beam; an optical fiber in which beam propagation characteristics of a combined laser beam at an exit varies depending on the output ratio, the combined laser beam being a laser beam obtained by combination of the first laser beam and the second laser beam; and a condensing optical system that performs machining of a workpiece by concentrating, on the workpiece, the beam emitted from the optical fiber.

The invention relates to a laser beam device for generating an effective laser beam and an illuminating laser beam, having a coupling element for coupling the illuminating laser beam into a beam path of the effective laser beam. The laser beam device is characterized in that the coupling element has a first sub-region and a second sub-region that is different from the first sub-region, and the effective laser beam, the illuminating laser beam and the coupling element are arranged relative to one another such that the effective laser beam is directed onto the first sub-region and the illuminating laser beam is directed onto the second sub-region, the first sub-region being transparent to the effective laser beam and the second sub-region being designed to reflect the illuminating laser beam in parallel with the effective laser beam.

An optically amplified repeater system includes optical transmission paths, a multi-channel optical amplifier, one or more Raman amplification pumping light sources, and a wavelength multiplexer. The multi-channel optical amplifier includes K simultaneous pumping light sources, N optical amplification media, and one or more optical couplers, and simultaneously amplifies, with the K simultaneous pumping light sources, light intensities of optical signals that pass through the N optical amplification media and propagate through the optical transmission paths. Light intensities of the wavelength band of the optical signals is Raman amplified by the Raman amplification pumping light. A light intensity of the Raman amplification pumping light output from the one or more Raman amplification pumping light sources is determined in accordance with characteristic differences between the optical signals passing through the optical transmission paths.

The disclosure addresses the problem of increased optical insertion losses in integrated optical switches. It enables the implementation of an array of optical amplifiers, typically with low/moderate gain, to compensate for optical insertion losses in the integrated switches. The amplifier is based on a doped optical fiber which is optically pumped by a pump laser. The integrated optical switch includes a transposer that facilitates connectivity between a set of fibers and a photonic chip through an optical mode conversion. An all passive circuitry is built in a doped fiber amplifier, WDM couplers combine/separate the signals from the pump, and splitters allow sharing of a single pump by multiple amplifiers. In addition, switch pigtails are implemented with the doped fiber.

A laser source for an ophthalmic surgical system includes a femtosecond seeder, an amplifier, a femtosecond pulse portion, a nanosecond pulse portion, and one or more switches. The femtosecond seeder generates femtosecond pulses. The amplifier amplifies laser pulses, which include the femtosecond pulses and nanosecond pulses. The amplifier amplifies the laser pulses by amplifying the femtosecond pulses and generating and amplifying the nanosecond pulses. The femtosecond pulse portion alters and outputs the femtosecond pulses, and the nanosecond pulse portion alters and outputs the nanosecond pulses. The switches receive the laser pulses from the amplifier, and direct the laser pulses to the femtosecond pulse portion or the nanosecond pulse portion. In other embodiments, the laser source includes a femtosecond seeder and a nanosecond seeder that generates the nanosecond pulses.

A system (e.g., an optical amplifier) comprising gain fibers (e.g., Bismuth-doped optical fiber) for amplifying optical signals. The optical signals have an operating center wavelength (λ0) that is centered between approximately 1260 nanometers (˜1260 nm) and ˜1360 nm (which is in the O-Band). The gain fibers are optically coupled to pump sources, with the number of pump sources being less than or equal to the number of gain fibers. The pump sources are (optionally) shared among the gain fibers, thereby providing more efficient use of resources.

A passively Q-switched laser with intracavity pumping is described. The passively Q-switched laser has an optically pumped gain element and a saturable absorber element. The optically pumped gain element is situated in an extended cavity of a VECSEL (Vertical Extended Cavity Surface Emitting Laser) so that the gain element is pumped by a circulating pump beam of the VECSEL. The passively Q-switched laser may produce output pulses at an eye-safe wavelength using a low gain laser transition and may use a plurality of surface emitting gain regions to pump the passively Q-switched laser.

A phase difference measuring device is provided with a phase conversion device and a detection device. The phase conversion device converts a first laser beam that passes therethrough so that the first laser beam includes a phase distribution of one cycle in an azimuth direction in a cross section of the first laser beam included in an arbitrary virtual plane perpendicular to an optical axis of the first laser beam. The detection device detects an azimuth angle of an intensity centroid of an interference pattern generated by at least a part of a first laser beam that has passed through the phase conversion device, and a part of a second laser beam that derives from a laser beam as seed light from which the first laser beam derives, of which an optical intensity is same as the at least a part of the first laser beam, and detects an inter-beam phase difference of the second laser beam.

A light-emitting system includes an optical fiber, a first light source unit, a second light source unit, and a light-guiding member. The optical fiber includes a wavelength-converting portion containing a wavelength-converting element. The wavelength-converting element may be excited by excitation light to produce a spontaneous emission of light having a longer wavelength than the excitation light and may also be excited by an amplified spontaneous emission of light. The first light source unit makes the excitation light incident on the optical fiber. The second light source unit makes seed light, causing the wavelength-converting element that has been excited by either the excitation light or the amplified spontaneous emission of light to produce a stimulated emission of light, incident on the optical fiber. The light-guiding member guides the light coming from the optical fiber and lets the light emerge therefrom.

A laser system including a seed laser, a laser beam splitting and combining subsystem receiving an output from the seed laser and providing a combined laser output having noise and a noise cancellation subsystem operative to provide a noise cancellation phase correction output based on taking into consideration the noise at intermittent times, the laser beam splitting and combining subsystem varying a phase of the combined laser output during time interstices between the intermittent times.