High Power Laser Applications of Hollow Core Fibres

Hollow core fibres (HCFs) are based on carefully designed glass microstructures which allow the guidance of light within a central air core, enabling the transmission of peak power levels far beyond the damage and optical nonlinearity thresholds of solid core silica glass fibres, as well as the possibility to achieve strong light:gas interactions over extended length scales in a compact, confined environment.

Within this project we look to exploit these enabling properties in a variety of high power laser applications including the delivery of intense laser light over long distances (both CW and pulsed) and wavelength conversion in gas-filled HCFs using Kerr and Raman nonlinearities.

The work will be experimental in nature, but will also include some numerical modelling, as well as collaboration across a wide range of research groups working on fibre design and fabrication, high-power laser development and metrology. Included within the research will be the development of means of reliably and efficiently coupling high power laser light into HCFs and associated thermal management, accurate spatial, spectral and temporal characterisation of the input and output beams and working with different potential end users of the technology.