Wavelength agile fiber lasers

Speaker: Balaswamy Velpula

Abstract

Nonlinear effects in laser systems can be both beneficial and detrimental. A specific class of nonlinearities of importance are photon-phonon interactions such as stimulated Raman and Brillouin scattering. Understanding and controlling them is of essential importance to achieve crucial technological developments in laser systems such as enhancing wavelength agility and power scaling. This has been the main theme of my research work. 
In this talk, I will present beneficial aspects of nonlinear effects, i.e., generation of new frequencies. Specifically, I will present my research work on the design and development of advanced fiber-based laser systems at unconventional wavelengths using 'Stimulated Raman Scattering' (SRS) in optical fibers. SRS is a nonlinear effect due to interaction of light with optical phonons of the fiber. Such systems are well suited used for applications such as spectroscopy, characterization of optical components, industrial manufacturing and material processing, free space optical communications etc.
Towards the end, I will also present a future research plan on how such wavelength agile fiber lasers enable development of advanced, fiber-based, octave spanning spectrum, called supercontinuum, sources with low intensity noise and low cost for next generation ultra-high resolution (UHR) optical coherence tomography (OCT) systems.

Bio

Dr. Balaswamy Velpula is currently an Assistant Professor in the ECE Department, IISc Bangalore. He did his M.E from ECE and PhD from Centre for Nano Science and Engineering of IISc Bengaluru. His Research interests are Fiber lasers and Amplifiers, Nonlinear optics, optical signal processing and optical fiber communications. His work has produced 1 Indian patent, 15 international journals and 26 peer reviewed international conference proceedings. He was awarded the Visvesvaraya PhD fellowship (Meity), international travel grants from SPIE and Tata Trusts. Currently, he is leading a research program at IISc (with DRDO, IITM) on advancing high coherence, high power fiber lasers.