CHIRAL FIBER LASER APPARATUS AND METHOD

摘要

A chiral fiber laser (10) implemented in a fiber Bragg grating mimicking the advantageous optical properties of a cholesteric liquid crystal structure is provided. The dopant, the pitch, the core cross section and dimensions thereof, of the inventive chiral fiber laser (10) as well as the core (14) and cladding (16) materials used in construction thereof, may be advantageously selected and configured to enable the inventive chiral fiber laser (10) to produce lasing at a desirable wavelength. In another embodiment of the inventive chiral fiber laser, a tunable defect is introduced to provide tunable lasing corresponding to the wavelength at the defect mode. Multiple embodiments using coupled fiber optical pumping as well as direct optical pumping for excitation of the inventive chiral fiber laser are provided.