Abstract: The invention relates to a system for medicinal treatment, in particular for treating benign prostatic hyperplasia BPH, for use in the event of tumor resection or for use in thoracic surgery. The system comprises a diode laser device for producing a laser beam and to an application system based on optical wave guides that can be endoscopically introduced into a patient. Said system is designed in such a manner that the laser beam, produced by the diode laser device is guided through the application system and is emitted by said application system so that biological tissue can be treated in a selective manner with the emerging laser beam.

Abstract: The invention relates to a system for medicinal treatment, in particular for treating benign prostatic hyperplasia BPH, for use in the event of tumor resection or for use in thoracic surgery. The system comprises a diode laser device for producing a laser beam and to an application system based on optical wave guides that can be endoscopically introduced into a patient. Said system is designed in such a manner that the laser beam, produced by the diode laser device is guided through the application system and is emitted by said application system so that biological tissue can be treated in a selective manner with the emerging laser beam.

Abstract: An optical fiber is disclosed that can be used as an active medium in fiber lasers and/or fiber amplifiers, featuring a preferably rare-earth-doped silica active core surrounded by a pure or doped silica cladding layer (“pump core”). The pump core is surrounded by a doped or pure silica inner cladding for guiding pumping radiation within the pump core. Thus, the refractive index of the inner cladding is lower than that of the pump core. The fiber is surrounded by a protective coating made of polymeric material. One or more additional outer cladding layers, having refractive indexes lower than said inner cladding, may optionally be placed between the inner cladding and the protective coating to further protect the polymer coating from damage. Unlike the prior art, the protective coating does not serve as the only cladding, but is assisted by the inner cladding and optional outer cladding(s).

Abstract: An optical fiber is disclosed that can be used as an active medium in fiber lasers and/or fiber amplifiers, featuring a preferably rare-earth-doped silica active core surrounded by a pure or doped silica cladding layer (“pump core”). The pump core is surrounded by a doped or pure silica inner cladding for guiding pumping radiation within the pump core. Thus, the refractive index of the inner cladding is lower than that of the pump core. The fiber is surrounded by a protective coating made of polymeric material. One or more additional outer cladding layers, having refractive indexes lower than said inner cladding, may optionally be placed between the inner cladding and the protective coating to further protect the polymer coating from damage. Unlike the prior art, the protective coating does not serve as the only cladding, but is assisted by the inner cladding and optional outer cladding(s).

Abstract: A diode pumped fiber laser is described that utilizes highly erbium-doped fluoride glass to produce 1 W and higher outputs at about 3 &mgr;m. High dopant concentrations in fluoride glass make it possible to efficiently pump the laser around 975 nm which in turn leads to higher slope efficiencies for the laser. Furthermore, by using this pumping wavelength, saturation of laser output due to bleaching of the ground state is overcome. The fluoride glass composition is a modified version of the standard ZBLAN composition. This altered composition achieves high glass quality, enables fiber drawing, and avoids the problem of crystallization.