A highly efficient tunable tapered-polymer-fiber TPF laser was
demonstrated by use of a compound parabolic TPF doped with
Rhodamine-6G R6G dye. The tuning ranges over 40 nm at
the visible region for laser output with the maximum output
energy of 600 J at 570 nm and the optical-optical conversion
efficiency of 23% were achieved by a prism as a spectrally selective
element. Moreover, the coupling efficiency for the taper exceeded 90%.
Compared to traditional polymer fibers with a micrometer-size core diameter,
the taper allows for a higher pump to be launched without damaging
the fiber endfaces, and it can efficiently couple the light into the fiber
and alleviate the alignment difficulty. So, the TPF laser not only possesses
all of the advantages of traditional polymer-fiber lasers, and it can
also obtain higher output energy and higher efficiency.
Additionally, it is insensitive to geometrical displacements.