Abstract
Recently, a technique is reported for efficient face pumping of thin slab solid state lasers which overcomes the low pump absorption of slabs with thickness below one millimetre, and which is an area scalable design. The thin slab concept has the advantage of high gain, reduced optical distortion by temperature gradients and high thermal fracture pump power. The configuration is attractive for Nd:glass lasers, countering the poor thermal conductivity and low gain cross-section, and reducing active material cost. This paper investigates the average power capabilities of thin Nd:glass slabs, for a range of cooling techniques, to assess thermal distortion problems and to determine the feasibility of true cw operation. The Nd:glass slabs are pumped using diode light injected into a high reflecting cavity through narrow slots that match the diodes emission area. The scheme uses either 10 diode bars pumping from one side of the slab, or 20 bars pumping from both sides. Each bar has a maximum (quasi-cw) peak power of 55W. Slab cooling by double sided forced air, double sided water and single sided conduction has been tested.
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | Proceedings of the 1996 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe |
| Pages | 58 |
| Publication status | Published - 1996 |
| Event | 1996 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe - Hamburg, Germany Duration: 8 Sept 1996 → 13 Sept 1996 |
Conference
| Conference | 1996 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Germany |
| City | Hamburg |
| Period | 8/09/96 → 13/09/96 |