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1998
Conference Paper
Titel
38W Nd:YAG slab laser partially end pumped by a stack with 3 diode laser bars
Abstract
Fulltext: To scale the output power of diode pumped solid state lasers at high beam quality, high efficiency and low cost, we have developed a novel slab laser concept, which consists of slab-shaped crystal with only two polished faces for passing pumping and laser beam. The slab crystal is end pumped by a stack consisting of 3 diode laser bars and mounted in a watercooled brass heat sink with two large faces serving as thermally conducting surfaces. The pumped volume underfills the slab volume and has a rectangular cross section. Hybrid resonator, which is stable in the plane of the small dimension and unstable in the plane of the large dimension, was used for diffraction-limited beam quality at high efficiency. Unlike in the conventional slab laser design, in which the laser beam takes zigzag path inside the slab crystal, in our design the laser beam goes straight through the slab. This leads reduced crystal cost and possibility of parasitic oscillation. With the slab laser 38W outpu t power was obtained at a electro-optical efficiency of 17per cent. The beam quality at an output power of 32W is nearly diffraction limited (Fig. 1) with M2 = 1.3 in the unstable plane and M2 = 1.7 in the stable plane.