High Power CW Laser @1310nm with spectral width of 5-10nm required

That seems to be extremely narrow for a laser diode.

Willing to consider ASE fiber lasers in this range?

"AES" wrote

Interesting suggestion, but how about AES fiber lasers? ;-)

Seriously what ASE stand for?

I know next to nothing concernng fiber lasers but I am always willing to learn.

The excited ("pumped up") atoms in a laser both provide gain for any optical signals inside or sent into the laser within the laser gain bandwidth through what's called "stimulated emission", and also spontaneously emit incoherent light from the same atoms across the full amplification bandwidth of the laser transition, through what's known as "spontaneous emission" (aka fluorescence).

This spontaneous emission is relatively weak -- it's essentially a noise source inside the laser -- but if the laser has enough gain (which in practice means if it's long enough), this spontaneous emission will be strongly amplified by the gain mechanism as the spontaneously emitted light passes down the long laser; and the laser will squirt significant amounts of _amplified spontaneous emission_ (ASE) out of one or both ends, even with no input signals and no end mirrors to provide feedback.

Fibers are a natural for this, since they're naturally very long, can have very high gain, and automatically trap the amplified spontaneous emission within the fiber. Commercial lasers of this type are available for use in optical tomography and other applications. One emerging commercial source (look at their "Products" page) is

which I know about because I have a connection with them; but there are others. (You are talking commercial prices here, e.g. multiple K$.)

Mother Nature also makes ASE lasers: there are huge ASE lasers out in space, and in the atmosphere of Mars, mirrorless of course, formed by immense gas clouds optically pumped by the light of nearby stars.

On a sunny day (Sun, 14 May 2006 15:38:29 -0700) it happened AES wrote in :

Mother Nature also makes ASE lasers: there are huge ASE lasers out in

So now it is up to Darth Vader to put two huge mirrors in space at the right position, to fry the planet. The Death Star.

"AES" wrote

nearby stars? which ones besides the sun?

I think most here have missed entirely what this person is looking for. The ASE sources most are linking to are the 1550nm or 1060nm versions. To get a 1310 ASE you need a praseodymium doped Fluoride based fiber. This type of light source is very difficult to find so I can only imagine the price on it.

Mother Nature¹s natural masers & lasers

Astrophysical masers (1965) Molecular maser action in interstellar hydrogen clouds

Pumped by UV radiation from nearby stars OH (1670 MHz), H20 (2.2 GHz), SiO2 (4.313 GHz) Brightness temperatures 1015 K; immense power outputs

CO2 lasers in planetary atmospheres (1976)

Hydrogen recombination masers (19941996)

Hydrogen clouds near MWC 349A & other stars (?) ASE at 850 £gm, 450 £gm, 169 £gm, 89 £gm, 52.5 £gm

You could try Superluminescent Diodes. At 1310 nm, you can get about