Research on the beam combining technique of a 350 W blue semiconductor laser for urological applications

Zheng Haoxuan; Hu Xuanyu; Zheng Yi; Duan Changcheng; Xiao Yu; Xu Gang; Tang Xiahui

doi:10.12086/oee.2024.230302

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Zheng H X, Hu X Y, Zheng Y, et al. Research on the beam combining technique of a 350 W blue semiconductor laser for urological applications[J]. Opto-Electron Eng, 2024, 51(4): 230302. doi: 10.12086/oee.2024.230302

Citation:

Zheng H X, Hu X Y, Zheng Y, et al. Research on the beam combining technique of a 350 W blue semiconductor laser for urological applications[J]. Opto-Electron Eng, 2024, 51(4): 230302. doi: 10.12086/oee.2024.230302

Research on the beam combining technique of a 350 W blue semiconductor laser for urological applications

School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, China

Fund Project: Project supported by Major Science and Technology Project of Hubei Province (2021AAA009)

More Information

^*Corresponding author: txh1116@hust.edu.cn

Received Date 12 December 2023

Revised Date 25 February 2024

Accepted Date 26 February 2024

Published Date 25 April 2024

Abstract

Abstract

The main light sources used in the clinical treatment of urological surgery are thulium-doped laser, holmium-doped laser, and green laser via the double-frequency from neodymium-doped laser, etc. In recent years, with the improvement of the output power of blue semiconductor laser diodes, 450 nm blue light has attracted growing attention and been applied in bladder tumor resection surgery, offering advantages such as clean cutting, minimal bleeding, and no adverse coagulation of adjacent tissues. This work focuses on the solution for a high-stability fiber-coupled output blue laser source for urological surgery applications. A 350 W fiber-coupled blue semiconductor laser is built by utilizing four 100 W arrayed blue laser units as the light source. The optical field transmission characteristics of the multi-emitter array are analyzed, and the far-field distribution of optical intensity exhibits a dual-peak structure with a peak angle of $${\arcsin}(5\lambda /4{\gamma }_{{\rm{d}}})$$. By applying the spatial beam combining technique, we have successfully achieved the cross-interference of the slow-axis beams, thereby obliterating the emission dead zone. A polarization beam combining scheme is performed to rotate the polarization state of one beam from P-polarized to S-polarized, and then combine it orthogonally with another P-polarized beam, resulting in compression of the spacing between fast-axis beams and improved beam brightness. The collimating structure reduces the divergence angles of the fast and slow axes to 0.6981 mrad and 1.0123 mrad, respectively. The fast axis is expanded by a factor of 1.2 to transform the output beam profile into a square shape. Finally, we obtain a blue laser with a power of 358 W, an output fiber of 200 μm/NA 0.22, a beam combining efficiency of 89.5%, an electro-optical conversion efficiency of 31.3%, and power fluctuation less than 0.4%. Using the water-cooled fiber to couple out the light beam, this high-power laser source may serve as an ideal medical solution for clinical treatment in urological surgery.
- laser technology /
- laser clinical applications /
- blue lasers /
- beam combination /
- high-stability

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References

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Overview

Overview

The main light sources used in the clinical treatment of urological surgery are thulium-doped laser, holmium-doped laser, and green laser via the double-frequency from neodymium-doped laser, etc. In recent years, with the improvement of the output power of blue semiconductor laser diodes, 450 nm blue light has attracted growing attention and been applied in bladder tumor resection surgery, offering advantages such as clean cutting, minimal bleeding, and no adverse coagulation of adjacent tissues. This work focuses on the solution for a high-stability fiber-coupled output blue laser source for urological surgery applications. A 350 W fiber-coupled blue semiconductor laser is built by utilizing four 100 W arrayed blue laser units as the light source. The optical field transmission characteristics of the multi-emitter array are analyzed, and the far-field distribution of optical intensity exhibits a dual-peak structure with a peak angle of arcsin(5λ /4γ_d). By applying the spatial beam combining technique, we have successfully achieved the cross-interference of the slow-axis beams, thereby obliterating the emission dead zone. A polarization beam combining scheme is performed to rotate the polarization state of one beam from P-polarized to S-polarized, and then combine it orthogonally with another P-polarized beam, resulting in compression of the spacing between fast-axis beams and improved beam brightness. The collimating structure reduces the divergence angles of the fast and slow axes to 0.6981 mrad and 1.0123 mrad, respectively. The fast axis is expanded by a factor of 1.2 to transform the output beam profile into a square shape. The final research findings demonstrate that:

1) Based on 100 W arrayed blue laser units, we have successfully implemented spatial beam combining and polarization beam combining techniques, resulting in a significant reduction in the dead zone of the beam and a substantial increase in the output power density. Ultimately, we have successfully combined the beams from four 100 W arrayed blue laser units to achieve a beam size of 13.3 mm×16.4 mm.

2) After beam combining, we have successfully coupled the beam into a 200 μm optical fiber using techniques such as beam expansion and focusing. As a result, we achieved a stable output power of 358 W for the blue laser, with a beam coupling efficiency of 89.5% and an electro-optical conversion efficiency of 31.3%.

3) The laser operates with remarkable stability, exhibiting power fluctuations of less than 2.4%. The brightness and beam quality of the output beam are both exceptionally high. Furthermore, the output power of 350 W surpasses that of any known blue laser medical device currently available on the market, making it suitable for clinical treatments in urological surgery.