ABSTRACT
Since the first demonstration by Snitzer and co-workers in 1964, fibre lasers have been developed for more than half a century. Progressive developments in all aspects of laser performance have been addressed in this area. As a competitive rival to traditional lasers, applications of fibre lasers have expanded significantly nowadays. A brief introduction to fibre lasers is given in this chapter. Basic structure of fibre laser is described with essential elements of the laser system. Based on this, properties of fibre lasers are summarized in terms of laser gain, efficiency, and more importantly, all-fibre structure design. A quantitative basis of fibre laser is discussed next with the fundamental optical fibre structure and laser transition theory. Moreover, energy level and optical spectra properties of mostly used rare-earth ions in fibre lasers are systematically presented with typical laser transitions. Versatility of fibre lasers is addressed with several fibre laser systems. At the end of the chapter, future prospect about the development of fibre lasers is briefly discussed based on the challenge encountered in the current stage.
