Several advantages of the 976nm pump source
976nm pump source technology is maturing
In the past, the main reason for restricting the industrial application of 976nm pump source is that the absorption spectrum of the gain fiber in the 976nm band is narrow. When the temperature of the working environment changes, the drift of the center wavelength of the pump source causes the absorption rate of the gain active fiber to change greatly, which easily leads to the fiber. The output power of the laser is unstable. In the past few years when thermal management technology was not mature enough, developers used a 915 nm band with a wide absorption peak but lower absorption efficiency to reduce the influence of ambient temperature. The 976nm pump source scheme has very strict requirements on the thermal management design of the laser. Therefore, in the past few years, only a few foreign and a few domestic fiber laser manufacturers have used the 976nm pump source solution in mass production industrial lasers.
The difference is that in recent years, domestic fiber laser manufacturers have gradually matured in thermal management technology. The forced water circulation cooling method carried out by industrial water coolers has fully met the requirements of fiber lasers for pump source temperature control. At present, many fiber laser manufacturers in China have used Changguang Huaxin's 976nm pump source to realize the mass production of medium and low fiber lasers, small-volume production of high-power lasers, and good performance at the end customers. Therefore, at present, there is no technical application obstacle using the 976nm pump source scheme.
The cost advantage of the 976nm pump source on medium and low power fiber lasers
With the mature technology development of domestic fiber laser enterprises, the market share of domestic lasers has steadily increased, especially for medium and low power fiber lasers, which have basically achieved localization replacement. As the product homogenization of medium and low power fiber lasers becomes more and more serious, the market competition is becoming increasingly fierce. Since the beginning of 19 years, it has entered the stage of price competition. The cost of fiber lasers faces huge market challenges. How to reduce costs? Many fiber laser manufacturers will target the 976nm pump source. The higher light-to-light conversion efficiency of the 976nm pump source can effectively reduce the cost cost of the pump source. Taking a 1500W fiber laser as an example, the 976nm pump source is about 10% higher than the 915nm pump source, which will directly save 235W pump source power, greatly save the manufacturing cost of the fiber laser, and also serve as the end user of the fiber laser. It saves about 11% of the electricity consumption cost and effectively helps the middle and downstream users to establish a competitive advantage in the market.
High power fiber laser 976nm pump source technology and cost double advantages
At present, the demand for high-power fiber lasers in China is still dependent on imports, and the market is in short supply. Faced with a huge market gap, many domestic leading fiber laser manufacturers have turned their attention to the research and development of high-power fiber lasers, and there are many powerful manufacturers. The technology is constantly catching up with and even surpassing the world's leading fiber laser manufacturers.
Thereby, the pumping scheme of the high power fiber laser is re-evaluated. In the past, the semiconductor laser of 915 nm band was used as the pump source, which benefited from the wide absorption spectrum of the 915 nm band. The whole laser was less affected by temperature, but the absorption efficiency of the gain active fiber in the 915 nm band was low, in order to achieve the whole fiber laser. Higher power output, technically required to use higher 915nm pump power and longer active fiber, will cause developers to face gain fiber nonlinear effects, loss of optical efficiency, and increased thermal management There are many difficulties in increasing the cost per unit of wattage. When the output power exceeds a certain level, the 915 nm pumping scheme will become extremely complicated and eventually fail.
The above difficulties in the 915 nm band pumping scheme will be well solved using the 976 nm band pumping scheme. The absorption efficiency of the gain fiber in the 976nm band is 2-3 times that of the 915nm band. The higher absorption efficiency means that the required gain fiber is shorter, and the nonlinear effects are reduced. It also saves the material cost of the partial gain fiber, plus the cost advantage of the light efficiency (the light source efficiency of the 976nm band pump source is about 10% higher than the 915nm pump source), and the cost of the 976nm pumping scheme on the high power fiber laser. The benefits are further reflected.
When thermal management is no longer an obstacle to the 976nm pumping scheme, the technical and cost advantages of 976nm pumping technology are reflected.
