IPG Photonics Corporation announced the successful test of its new ten kilowatt single-mode fiber laser, a world record in a production laser. The unique laser produces 9.6 kilowatts of single-mode power through a single fiber at total efficiency exceeding 23%. IPG's new kilowatt laser has multiple applications including remote cutting and welding as well as directed energy.
Representing the latest development in the power scaling of IPG Photonics' patented high-power single-mode fiber laser technology, the laser's optical scheme consists of a fully integrated MOPA (master oscillator power amplifier) with an output delivery fiber four meters long directly spliced into the power amplifier. The company's ten kilowatt single-mode laser, the YLS-10000-SM, will be the world's brightest industrial CW solid state laser, given the combination of output power and virtually perfect Gaussian beam-quality at 1070 nm emission wavelength. Developed by its subsidiary IPG Laser GmbH, the YLS-10000-SM is a turnkey package that offers a small footprint and record efficiency wall-plug.