Laser Focus World 2021 Rising Stars Awards: Wiktor Walasik

As technical project manager at Cybel LLC (Bethlehem, PA), Dr. Wiktor Walasik is a fiber laser and fiber amplifier researcher and developer. During the 18 months he has been with the company, he has researched, developed, and manufactured pulsed single-clad, holmium-doped fiber amplifiers for forward-looking lidar applications in the 2000–2130 nm wavelength band. He has also researched and developed single-wavelength, single-frequency polarization-maintaining fiber distributed-feedback lasers with initial output powers up to 65 mW in the 2050 nm band and continuous-wave linewidths of <5 kHz. These lasers are key components of a novel multiple-patent-worthy pulsed lidar subsystem operating simultaneously at two closely spaced wavelengths of 2039 nm and 2039.2 nm for a highly advanced military application.

“I have been working in the field of fiber lasers for only a year and a half, but I feel very fulfilled in this work,” Walasik says. “Managing projects and designing and building novel fiber lasers is a very exciting endeavor, after having done fundamental research in nanophotonics and nonlinear optics for the past eight years. I feel honored to be selected for this award.”

According to Robert E. Tench, chief scientific officer at Cybel, Walasik “is clearly the hardest working and most talented young scientist that I have ever met in my 35 years of experience in lasers, fibers, and modern optics. His productivity in just 18 months on the job is astonishing and remarkable, and without parallel, in my experience.”

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