JP2012023274A - Active fiber cooling device and fiber laser oscillator equipped with it - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an active fiber cooling device having high cooling efficiency in which the work of attaching an active fiber is easy, vibration due to an external factor imparted to the active fiber can be absorbed, and thereby high output laser light can be oscillated, and to provide a fiber laser oscillator equipped with it.SOLUTION: The active fiber cooling device 31 cools an active fiber 2 which oscillates laser light between the end faces 3, 4 in the longitudinal direction by using exciting light entering from the end faces 3, 4. To the surface of a heat sink 32 which is cooled by refrigerant supplied from the outside to the inside and discharged reversely, the active fiber 2 is stuck tightly by a metallic heat dissipation member 35 in the shape of a thin film which has tackiness and covers the active fiber 2 entirely.

Description

  The present invention relates to an active fiber cooling device and a fiber laser oscillator including the same.

  Conventionally, various fiber laser oscillators have been proposed in which excitation light is incident from the end face of an active fiber to oscillate laser light.

  The present applicant has proposed a fiber laser oscillator using an active fiber in a large mode area (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  As the active fiber in this large mode area, for example, a double clad fiber can be used.

  In recent years, there has been a demand for increasing the output of this fiber laser oscillator.

  In a fiber laser oscillator in which excitation light is incident from the end face of an active fiber, the amount of heat generated in the fiber increases as the output increases, and thus cooling is necessary.

  For this purpose, various cooling methods have been conventionally proposed (see, for example, Patent Documents 2 to 4).

JP 2009-253075 A JP 2001-274489 A JP 2003-202430 A JP 2007-173648 A

  However, in the conventional cooling methods, the cooling efficiency is low, the work of mounting the active fiber is complicated, and further, the vibration of external factors applied to the active fiber causing the generation of high peak noise pulses. There is an inconvenience that cannot be absorbed.

  The present invention has been made in view of these points, has high cooling efficiency, facilitates the work of attaching an active fiber, can absorb vibrations of external factors applied to the active fiber, and thus has a high performance. An object of the present invention is to provide an active fiber cooling device capable of oscillating an output laser beam and a fiber laser oscillator including the active fiber cooling device.

  In order to achieve the above object, an active fiber cooling device according to a first aspect of the present invention cools an active fiber that oscillates laser light using excitation light incident from the end face between both end faces in the longitudinal direction. An active fiber cooling device, wherein the active fiber is formed by a thin-film metal heat-dissipating member having adhesiveness that covers the entire active fiber with respect to the surface of the heat sink that is cooled by the refrigerant supplied and discharged from the outside to the inside. It is characterized by being attached so as to be in close contact with each other.

  According to the present invention having such a configuration, since the entire active fiber is in close contact with the heat sink and the entire outside is covered with the metal heat radiating member, the heat radiation effect is high and the cooling efficiency is very high. Further, since the active fiber is attached by a metal heat dissipating member, the active fiber can be attached and fixed while simply performing fine positioning, thereby facilitating the attaching operation. Furthermore, the thin-film metal heat radiating member can absorb the vibration of the external factor by demonstrating the vibration absorbing action, and can oscillate the high output laser light while suppressing the high peak noise pulse. it can.

  The active fiber cooling device according to the second aspect of the present invention is characterized in that a plurality of the metal heat dissipating members are stacked to attach the active fiber to the heat sink. In this way, the cooling effect and vibration damping effect of the active fiber can be further improved.

  Further, in the active fiber cooling device according to the third aspect of the present invention, the active fiber includes a winding body portion formed in a flat winding shape in the middle in the longitudinal direction, and both end surfaces from the winding body portion. The heat sink includes a substrate made of a metal flat plate having a surface to which the wound portion of the active fiber is in close contact, and both ends of the active fiber. And a metal fiber guide block having a surface to be adhered to each other. And the winding part of the said active fiber is affixed on the said board | substrate by the said metal heat radiating member which covers the whole, The both ends of the said active fiber are affixed on the said fiber guide block by the said metal radiating member It is characterized by.

  According to the present invention having such a configuration, a winding body portion formed in a flat winding shape in the middle in the longitudinal direction, and both end portions extending linearly from the winding body portion toward the both end faces, It is possible to securely fix the active fiber having a heat sink to the heat sink by the metal heat radiating member. As a result, the effect of the first aspect of the present invention can be exhibited more reliably.

  The active fiber cooling device according to the fourth aspect of the present invention is characterized in that a refrigerant flow path is formed in the substrate along the shape of the wound portion of the active fiber. If it carries out like this, the winding body part in which the heat | fever which is easy to accumulate in an active fiber can be efficiently cooled with the refrigerant | coolant in a refrigerant flow path.

  In the active fiber cooling device according to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the fiber guide block is attached to the substrate, and a coolant channel is formed in a portion where both ends of the active fiber are in close contact with each other. It is characterized by that. By so doing, both ends of the active fiber that are likely to generate heat can be efficiently cooled by the refrigerant in the refrigerant flow path.

  The fiber laser oscillator according to the first aspect of the present invention is the active laser cooling device according to any one of the first to fifth aspects, wherein the active fiber cooling device has a substrate on the surface opposite to the surface to which the wound body is attached. An optical system member continuous to at least one of both ends of the fiber is provided.

  According to the present invention having such a configuration, the cooling efficiency is high, the work for attaching the active fiber is easy, the vibration of the external factor applied to the active fiber can be absorbed, and thus the high-power laser beam can be absorbed. It is possible to provide a fiber laser oscillator provided with an active fiber cooling device capable of oscillating a laser beam.

  According to the present invention, the cooling efficiency is high, the operation of attaching the active fiber is easy, the vibration of the external factor applied to the active fiber can be absorbed, and the high output laser light can be oscillated. An active fiber cooling device and a fiber laser oscillator including the same can be obtained.

The bottom view which shows embodiment of the active fiber cooling device of this invention, and the fiber laser oscillator provided with the same Plan view of FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing an essential part of an active fiber cooling device and a fiber laser oscillator including the active fiber cooling device of the present invention Cross section of active fiber

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

  1 to 4 show an embodiment of an active fiber cooling device of the present invention and a fiber laser oscillator including the same.

  Below, the whole structure of the fiber laser oscillator 1 of this embodiment and the structure of the active fiber cooling device 31 are demonstrated in order.

<About the fiber laser oscillator 1>
The fiber laser oscillator 1 of the present embodiment has a long active fiber 2 and is formed so that excitation light L1 is incident on one end face of the active fiber 2. The excitation light L1 is set to a wavelength of 900 nm to 990 nm, for example.

  As the active fiber 2, for example, a large mode area cut fiber made of a double clad fiber 21 as shown in FIG. 4 is used. The double clad fiber 21 is formed by covering the outer side of a core (active core) 22 at the central shaft portion with an inner clad (multimode pump core) 23, an outer clad (air cladding) 24 and a support layer 25 in order. The active fiber 2 is preferably an optical fiber for oscillation in which the core 22 is doped with a rare earth element.

  The active fiber 2 is attached to the lower surface of a substrate 33 made of a metal flat plate of a heat sink 32 that forms a cooling device 31. The first end face 3 (the end face of the double clad fiber 21) on one end side of the active fiber 2, that is, the side on which the excitation light L1 is incident is highly reflective (HR) with respect to a laser oscillation light FB described later. The other end side of the active fiber 2, that is, the second end face 4 (end face of the double clad fiber 21) on the emission side of the laser oscillation light is formed perpendicular to the optical axis of the oscillation light FB described later (so-called flat cut). Has been. In the second end face 4 formed in this way, the light that reaches the end face 4 is partially reflected. With the above configuration, a laser resonator is formed, and the laser oscillation light is emitted from the end face 4 which is the emission end face by reflecting and amplifying the light emitted when the core is excited by the excitation light L1 between the both end faces 3 and 4. FB is emitted.

  On the outside (light incident side) of one of the first end faces 3, a collimating lens 5 that makes the excitation light L1 parallel and a condenser lens 6 that collects the parallel excitation light L1 on the first end face 3 are provided. It is arranged on the optical axis. A connector 3 a is provided on the first end surface 3, and an optical system disposed on the optical axis is connected via a receptacle 3 b fixed to the lower surface of the substrate 33.

  On the outside (light emission side) of the other second end face 4, a collimator lens 7 that collimates the laser oscillation light FB emitted from the second end face 4, and the parallel laser oscillation light FB is reflected outside the system. An oscillation light extraction mirror 8 is extracted on the optical axis. A connector 4 a is provided on the second end face 4 and is connected to an optical system disposed on the optical axis via a receptacle 4 b fixed to the lower surface of the substrate 33.

  As shown in FIG. 2, an output system unit 9 for taking out the oscillation light extraction mirror 8 out of the system and outputting the laser oscillation light FB to the processing portion is fixed to the upper surface side of the substrate 33. As this output system unit 9, two reflection mirrors 10 that are taken out of the system from the oscillation light extraction mirror 8 and guide the laser oscillation light FB to the upper surface side of the substrate 33, and the laser oscillation light FB from the reflection mirror 10 are received. It is formed by an isolator unit 11 that receives and guides it to a plurality of downstream spectroscopic mirrors 12, and a safety shutter 13, a condensing lens 14, and an output fiber 15 provided downstream from each spectroscopic mirror 12.

<About the active fiber cooling device 31>
In FIG. 3, the active fiber 2 to be cooled includes a wound body portion 2 a in which a midway portion in the longitudinal direction is formed in a flat wound shape, and straight lines from the wound body portion 2 a toward both end surfaces 3 and 4. Both ends 2b extending in a shape. The end portion 2b from the first end surface 3 reaches the outermost periphery of the wound body portion 2a, and then is wound around the inner periphery side so that the inner and outer peripheral surfaces are brought into close contact with each other. The end portion 2b reaching the two end surfaces 4 is guided so as to return to the outermost peripheral portion of the wound body portion 2a.

  The active fiber 2 formed in this way is a thin-film metal heat radiation having adhesiveness that covers the entire active fiber 2 with respect to the surface of the heat sink 32 that is cooled by the refrigerant supplied and discharged from the outside to the inside. The active fiber 2 is stuck so as to be in close contact with the member 35.

  More specifically, the heat sink 32 includes a substrate 33 made of a metal flat plate having a surface to which the wound portion 2a of the active fiber 2 is in close contact, and a metal having a surface to which both end portions 2b of the active fiber 2 are in close contact. And a fiber guide block 34 made of steel.

  A coolant channel 36 is formed in the substrate 32 along the shape of the wound portion 2a of the active fiber 2, and coolant such as water is supplied and discharged through the inlet 36a and the outlet 36b. . A coolant channel 37 is also formed inside the fiber guide block 34, and coolant such as water is supplied and discharged through the inlet 37a and the outlet 37b. The fiber guide block 34 is fixed to the lower surface of the substrate 33, and both are integrally coupled.

  The active fiber 2 is positioned so that the wound body portion 2a is located on the portion of the substrate 33 where the refrigerant flow path 36 is formed, and the end portion 2b is positioned along the inner surface of the fiber guide block 34. Is attached so as to cover the entire surface of the active fiber 2 with a metal heat dissipating member 35 made of a metal tape (aluminum thin adhesive tape, for example, a thickness of about 50 μm to 500 μm). The effect can be obtained by sticking only one metal heat dissipating member 35, but it is desirable that a plurality of metal heat dissipating members 35 be stuck in accordance with the state of heat dissipation. By stacking a plurality of sheets, the adhering force of the active fiber can be strengthened, and the heat dissipation effect can be improved. In the present embodiment, two metal tapes are pasted together.

  Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

  The pulsed pumping light L1 emitted by pumping light output means (not shown) such as a laser diode is collimated by the collimator lens 5 and then condensed on the first end face 3 by the condenser lens 6. The light enters the active fiber 2. The excitation light L1 incident on the active fiber 2 excites the core 22 in the active fiber 2. The light emitted thereby is gradually amplified by reciprocating in the active fiber 2 using the end faces 3 and 4 as reflection surfaces.

  The light amplified in the active fiber 2 is output from the second end face 4 that has been flat cut as the laser oscillation light FB. Then, it is reflected by the oscillation light extraction mirror 8 and extracted outside the system. The extracted laser oscillation light FB is guided to the output system unit 9 fixed to the substrate 33 through the reflection mirror 10, and the isolator unit 11, the spectroscopic mirror 12, the safety shutter 13, the condensing lens 14, and the output fiber 15. After that, it is emitted and used for processing.

  In the present embodiment, the active fiber 2 is efficiently cooled by the active fiber cooling device 31 so that the high-power laser oscillation light FB can be stably output.

  Specifically, since the entire active fiber 2 is in close contact with the heat sink 32 and the entire outside thereof is covered with the metal heat radiating member 35, the heat radiation effect is high and the cooling efficiency is very high. Further, since the active fiber 2 is attached by the metal heat dissipating member 35, the active fiber 2 can be attached and fixed while simply performing fine positioning, thereby facilitating the attachment work. Become. Further, the thin-film metal heat radiating member 35 exerts a vibration absorbing action and can reliably absorb the vibrations of external factors, prevent the generation of noise pulses, and oscillate high-power laser light. be able to.

  Moreover, it has the winding body part 2a formed in the shape of a flat winding body in the middle in the longitudinal direction, and both end parts 2b extending linearly from the winding body part 2a toward both end faces 3 and 4 The active fiber 2 can be adhered and fixed to the substrate 33 made of a metal flat plate of the heat sink 32 and the metal fiber guide block 34 by a metal heat radiating member 35 formed in a tape shape. A higher effect can be exhibited.

  Further, the active fiber 2 is efficiently cooled by the refrigerant in the refrigerant flow path 36 along the shape of the wound portion 2a of the active fiber 2, and the substrate 33 and the fiber guide block 34 are integrated to increase the cooling efficiency. In addition, since the active fiber 2 is attached to the substrate 33 and the fiber guide block 34 with a plurality of the metal heat dissipating portions 35 being stacked, the cooling efficiency and the vibration damping rate can be further improved.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Fiber laser oscillator 2 Active fiber 2a Winding part 2b End part 3, 4 End surface
9 Output System Unit 31 Active Fiber Cooling Device 32 Heat Sink 33 Substrate 34 Fiber Guide Block 35 Metal Heat Dissipation Member 36, 37 Refrigerant Channel

Claims (6)

An active fiber cooling device that cools an active fiber that oscillates laser light using excitation light incident from the end face between both end faces in the longitudinal direction,
The active fiber is attached to the surface of the heat sink cooled by the refrigerant supplied and discharged from the outside to the inside by an adhesive thin film metal heat dissipation member that covers the entire active fiber. An active fiber cooling device.   The active fiber cooling device according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the metal heat dissipating members are stacked to attach the active fiber to the heat sink. The active fiber has a winding body portion formed in a flat winding shape in the middle in the longitudinal direction, and both end portions extending linearly from the winding portion toward the both end faces,
The heat sink includes a substrate made of a metal flat plate having a surface to which the wound portion of the active fiber is in close contact, and a metal fiber guide block having a surface to which both ends of the active fiber are in close contact with each other. Have
The wound portion of the active fiber is attached to the substrate by the metal heat dissipating member covering the whole,
The both ends of the said active fiber are affixed on the said fiber guide block by the said metal heat radiating member. The active fiber cooling device of Claim 1 or Claim 2 characterized by the above-mentioned.   The active fiber cooling device according to claim 3, wherein a refrigerant flow path is formed in the substrate along a shape of a winding portion of the active fiber.   4. The active fiber cooling device according to claim 3, wherein the fiber guide block is attached to the substrate, and a coolant channel is formed in a portion where both ends of the active fiber are in close contact with each other.   6. An optical system member that is continuous with at least one of both ends of the active fiber is installed on the surface of the substrate of the active fiber cooling device according to claim 1 opposite to the surface to which the wound body portion is attached. The fiber laser oscillator characterized by the above-mentioned.

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