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2013
Conference Paper
Titel
30 W peak-power 3 ns pulse-width operation of a 2 µm electro-optically cavity-dumped VECSEL
Abstract
In this paper electro-optic cavity dumping of a 2 µm semiconductor disk laser is reported. Using this approach, pulsed mode operation with 3 ns pulse length, 30 W of peak power and pulse repetition frequencies between 87 kHz and 1 MHz has been achieved. For cavity dumping, a birefringent polarizer prism was inserted into the V-shaped external cavity formed by high-reflectivity mirrors, in order to establish a linear polarization of the intra-cavity field. The polarization of the intra-cavity field could be rotated by 90° when applying a voltage to a Pockels cell placed inside the cavity close to the end mirror. Photons with rotated polarization undergo then total internal reflection inside the polarizing prism and are coupled out of the cavity sideways. Furthermore, a model based on standard laser rate equations has been developed, which excellently reproduces the measured pulse shape and temporal evolution of the intracavity power. Based on this model, we have studied the pulse length and shape as well as peak power and pulse energy as a function of cavity length in order to explore routes for further increasing peak output power and pulse energy.
Author(s)