2. Different technologies for fiber lasers

We now turn to detailing the major families of technologies and amplification concepts used in fiber-optic laser sources. It is interesting to see the wavelength ranges accessible by these various technologies, as illustrated in figure 8 . Fiber sources enable emission from the visible to the mid-infrared, and are particularly important for emission around 1 μm (ytterbium) and 1.55 μm (erbium). On the other hand, non-linear amplification mechanisms, which are not based on stimulated emission, allow access to arbitrary wavelengths under certain conditions. These are described in detail below.