The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 15, 2015
Filed:
Nov. 21, 2013
Lockheed Martin Corporation, Bethesda, MD (US);
Eric C. Honea, Seattle, WA (US);
Matthias P. Savage-Leuchs, Woodinville, WA (US);
Sean M. Courtney, Jamaica Plain, MA (US);
Khushvinder S. Brar, Bothell, WA (US);
Jason D. Henrie, Snohomish, WA (US);
Christian D. Dilley, Everett, WA (US);
Lockheed Martin Corporation, Bethesda, MD (US);
Abstract
Apparatus and method for suppressing modal instabilities (MI) in fiber-amplifier systems. In some embodiments, thermal effects drive the MI process, and in some such embodiments, the present invention provides a plurality of options for mitigating these thermal effects. In some embodiments, the present invention provides a hybrid fiber with a smaller core in the initial length where the thermal loads are highest, followed by a larger-core fiber. In some embodiments the length of the smaller-core section is chosen to keep the core heat-per-unit-length of the second section below a critical value for the onset of MI. In some embodiments, the hybrid fiber of the present invention avoids modal instabilities while yielding almost the same performance as compared to conventional fibers with regard to minimizing fiber nonlinearities such as Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS). In some embodiments, the hybrid fiber outputs a signal beam with at least 1 kW of power.