<title>Propagation effects of long step-index fibers for high-power beam delivery</title>

Abstract

Large core high NA glass fibers are often used to distribute the energy in high-power laser material processing systems. It is important to understand mode propagation in these fibers so that laser material processing systems can be designed with the minimal size optics and still have acceptable working distances and delivery efficiencies. The fundamental challenge in this respect is to understand mode propagation in these specialty fibers. The experiments summarized here confirmed that optics much smaller than optics designed through worst-case analysis are effective in practical delivery configurations.