Latest Version of LIEKKI™ Application Designer v3.1 for Designing Systems Employing Large Mode Area Fibers
Lohja, Finland January 20, 2006
LIEKKI, a leading supplier of highly doped optical fibers and modules, is releasing the latest version of its simulation software, LIEKKI™ Application Designer, with essential tools for low- to high-power fiber laser and amplifier simulation. LIEKKI™ Application Designer (LAD) v3.1 includes tools for designing systems employing large mode area fibers for the first time in a commercially available fiber amplifier and laser simulator.
“LIEKKI™ Application Designer v3.1 builds on the popular v3.0 strengthened with new essential features such as multimode propagation, user defined refractive index profile and fiber bending effects,” explains Dr. Mircea Hotoleanu, Product Manager for design software. “The software can be used to simulate fiber amplifiers and lasers using conventional fibers, as well as the unique features of LIEKKI™ Direct Nanoparticle Deposition (DND) fibers – such as radial doping profiles and unique refractive index profiles,” he continues.
With the multimode propagation LAD can now calculate the optical power propagation along the doped fiber for each mode in multimode fibers. Thus, the user can evaluate the quality of the output optical beam. In addition, LAD v3.1 calculates now the modes for any refractive index profile having radial symmetry. In virtually any application, the optical fiber is bent either for packaging purposes or to discriminate against higher order modes. LAD v3.1 includes now the bending effects in the calculations including mode field distortion and power loss. These new tools come in addition to many other existing features such as radial doping, transient calculations, Monte Carlo analysis and nonlinear effects threshold power.
According to Dr. Hanna J. Hoffman, LIEKKI’s CTO, “This latest version of LAD with its additional features responds to the needs of many of our customers. With its enhanced features it allows bridging the gap between the application designer and fiber manufacturers, a long awaited development for fiber laser systems. LAD v3.1 can, in particular, allow optimization of fiber parameters matched to application specifications as well as serve as a sanity check and comparison tool between different types of fibers and pump characteristics.”
Fig. 1: LAD v3.1 simulates the multimode propagation in rare-earth doped fibers