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    • Valentin Gapontsev

    Founder and CEO, IPG Photonics

    Valentin Gapontsev (1939-2021) was founder and chief executive officer of IPG Photonics (Oxford, MA).

    FIGURE 1. The progress of ultrafast mid-IR Cr:ZnS/ZnSe oscillators based on different mode-locking methods is compared: SESAM (squares), graphene (diamonds), Kerr-lens (circles), and by type of the gain medium: single-crystal (open symbols) and polycrystalline (solid symbols). Arrows show the record parameters obtained to date (based on the data published in references 1 and 2 and the most current results obtained at IPG Photonics).
    Lasers & Sources

    Mid-IR Lasers: Kerr-lens mode-locking in polycrystalline Cr:ZnS and Cr:ZnSe competes with Ti:sapphire

    Sergey Vasilyev
    May 5, 2015
    Kerr-lens mode-locking of polycrystalline chromium-doped zinc sulfide and zinc selenide leads to multiwatt output power, pulse durations approaching three optical cycles, and ...
    FIGURE 1. Materials-processing applications fall into specific domains when placed in a map of power at the workpiece vs. the beam quality, or beam parameter product (BPP). For the 1060- to 1080-nm range, BBP is approximately found from the conventional M2 beam-quality parameter by multiplying by 0.3 (a diffraction-limited 1-æm-emitting laser will have M2=1 and BPP = 0.3 mm-mrad). This map assumes that the laser beam is focused on the workpiece with an f/4 optic. Laser sources are also shown as points; all applications lying above and to the left of a source's BPP and power values can be addressed by that source.
    Fiber Optics

    Fiber lasers grow in power

    Valentin Gapontsev
    Aug. 1, 2002
    The fiber laser has a history almost as long as that of the laser itself.