High-power diode-laser-pumped CW solid-state lasers using stable-unstable resonators

IEEE Journal on Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics

Volumn 3, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 19-25

  Mudge, Damien ^b   Veitch, Peter J ^b   Munch, Jesper ^a,b   Ottaway, David ^b   Hamilton, Murray W ^a,b  

^a IEEE

^b UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE   (Australia)

Author keywords

CW solid state lasers; Diode pumping; Single mode; Unstable resonators

Indexed keywords

DIODE PUMPING; SINGLE MODE; STABLE UNSTABLE RESONATORS;

CONTINUOUS WAVE LASERS; HIGH POWER LASERS; NEODYMIUM LASERS; PUMPING (LASER); RESONATORS; SEMICONDUCTOR LASERS;

SOLID STATE LASERS;

EID: 0031072314     PISSN: 1077260X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1109/2944.585808     Document Type: Article

References (49)

1. 00 Nd:YAG laser side-pumped by fiber-coupled diode lasers," Opt. Lett., vol. 21, pp. 210212, Feb. 1996.
2. 00 CW diode-end-pumped Nd:YAG laser," Opt. Lett., vol. 18, pp. 116-118, Jan. 1993.
3. S. C. Tidwell, J. F. Seamans, M. S. Bowers, and A. K. Cousins, "Scaling CW diode-end-pumped Nd:YAG lasers to high average powers," IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 28, pp. 997-1009, Apr. 1992.
4. 00-mode, diode-laser-pumped, Nd:YAG miniature-slab laser," Opt. Lett., vol. 20, pp. 459-461, Mar. 1995.
5. B. Neuenschwander, R. Weber, and H. P. Weber, "Thermal lens and beam properties in multiple longitudinally diode laser pumped Nd:YAG slab lasers," IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 32, pp. 365-370, Mar. 1996.
6. N. Pavel, T. Descalu, and V. Lupei, "Stable resonators for fundamental mode operation," Opt. Eng., vol. 35, pp. 1239-1246, May 1996.
7. A. E. Siegman, Lasers, A. Kelly, Ed. Mill Valley, CA: Univ. Sci. Books, 1986, ch. 19.
8. N. Hodgson and T. Haase, "Beam parameters, mode structure and diffraction losses of slab lasers with unstable resonators," Opt. Quantum Electron., vol. 24, pp. S903-S926, Sept. 1992.
9. A. E. Siegman, "Unstable optical resonators for laser applications," Proc. IEEE, vol. 53, pp. 277-287, Mar. 1965.
10. 2 laser system," IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. QE-5, pp. 575-586, Dec. 1969.
11. R. A. Chodzko, H. Mirels, F. S. Roehrs, and R. J. Pedersen, "Application of a single frequency unstable cavity to a CW HF laser," IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. QE-9, pp. 523-530, May 1973.
12. 2 lasers with annular gain media," IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 30, pp. 1441-1447, June 1994.
13. 2 lasers," Appl. Opt., vol. 35, pp. 3185-3192, June 1996.
14. N. Hodgson and H. Weber, "High-power solid-state lasers with unstable resonators," Opt. Quantum Electron., vol. 22, pp. S39-S55, July 1990.
15. N. Pavel, T. Dascalu, and V. Lupei, "Positive-branch unstable resonators with thermal lens compensation," Opt. Laser Techno., vol. 28, pp. 451-455, Sept. 1996.
16. A. E. Siegman and R. Arrathoon, "Modes in unstable optical resonators and lens waveguides," IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. QE-3, pp. 156-163, Apr. 1967.
17. M. J. Smith, "Mode properties of a strip confocal unstable resonator with saturable gain," Appl. Opt., vol. 20, pp. 1611-1620, May 1981.
18. A. E. Siegman, Lasers, A. Kelly, Ed. Mill Valley, CA: Univ. Sci. Books, 1986, ch. 22, 23.
19. R. A. Chodzko and A. N. Chester, "Optical aspects of chemical lasers," in Handbook of Chemical Lasers, R. W. F. Gross and J. F. Bott, Eds. New York: Wiley 1976, ch. 3.
20. K. E. Oughstun, "Unstable resonator modes," in Progress in Optics, E. Wolf, Ed. New York: Elsevier, 1987, vol. XXIV, sec. IV.
21. M. K. Reed and R. L. Byer, "The output beam quality of a Q-switched Nd:Glass slab laser," IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 26, pp. 21382145, Dec. 1990.
22. K. Kuba, T. Yamamoto, and S. Yagi, "Improvement of slab-laser beam divergence by using an off-axis unstable-stable resonator," Opt. Lett., vol. 15, pp. 121-123, Jan. 1990.
23. K. Yasui, S. Yagi, and M. Tanaka, "Negative-branch unstable resonator with a phase unifying output coupler for high-power Nd:YAG lasers," Appl. Opt., vol. 29, pp. 1277-1280, Mar. 1990.
24. N. Hodgson, S. Dong, and Q. Lü, "Performance of a 2.3-kW Nd:YAG slab laser system," Opt. Lett., vol. 18, pp. 1727-1729, Oct. 1993.
25. N. Hodgson and G. Bostanjoglo, "The near-concentric unstable resonator (NCUR) - An improved resonator design for high-power solid-state lasers," Opt. Commun., vol. 99, pp. 75-81, May 1993.
26. Q. Lü, S. Dong, and H. Weber, "A compact resonator design for high-power slab lasers," Opt. Commun., vol. 99, pp. 201-206, June 1993.
27. K. Yasui and J. Nishimae, "Beam-mode calculations for a strongly pumped solid-state rod laser with and unstable resonator," Opt. Lett., vol. 19, pp. 560-562, Apr. 1994.
28. W. Streifer, D. R. Scifres, G. L. Harnagel, D. F. Welch, J. Berger, and M. Sakamoto, "Advances in diode laser pumps," IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 24, pp. 883-893, June 1988.
29. J. G. Endriz, M. Vakili, G. S. Browder, M. DeVito, J. M. Haden, G. L. Harnagel, W. E. Plano, M. Sakamoto, D. F. Welch, S. Willing, D. P. Worland, and H. C. Yao, "High power diode laser arrays," IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 28, pp. 952-965, Apr. 1992.
30. T. Y. Fan and R. L. Byer, "Diode laser-pumped solid-state lasers," IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 24, pp. 895-912, June 1988.
31. A. Parent, N. McCarthy, and P. Lavigne, "Effects of hard apertures on mode properties of resonators with Gaussian reflectivity mirrors," IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. QE-23, pp. 222-228, Feb. 1987.
32. A. D. Farinas, E. K. Gustafson, and R. L. Byer, "Design and characterization of a 5.5-W, CW, injection-locked, fiber-coupled, laser-diode-pumped Nd:YAG miniature-slab laser," Opt. Lett., vol. 19, pp. 114-116, Jan. 1994.
33. I. Freitag, D. Golla, S. Knoke, W. Schöne, H. Zellmer, A. Tünnermann, and H. Welling, "Amplitude and frequency stability of a diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser operating at a single-frequency continuous-wave output power of 20 W," Opt. Lett., vol. 20, pp. 462-464, Mar. 1995.
34. S. T. Yang, Y. Imai, M. Oka, N. Eguchi, and S. Kubota, "Frequency-stabilized, 10-W continuous-wave, laser-diode end-pumped, injection-locked Nd:YAG laser," Opt. Lett., vol. 21, pp. 1676-1678, Oct. 1996.
35. A. E. Siegman, "Excess spontaneous emission in non-Hermitian optical systems. I. Laser amplifiers," Phys. Rev. A. Gen. Phys., vol. 39, pp. 1253-1263, Feb. 1989.
36. N McCarthy and P. Lavigne, "Optical resonators with Gaussian reflectivity mirrors: Output beam characteristics," Appl. Opt., vol. 23, pp. 3845-3850, Nov. 1984.
37. 00 Nd:YAG rod lasers," Appl. Opt., vol. 35, pp. 5925-5936, Oct. 1996.
38. T. J. Kane, R. C. Eckardt, and R. L. Byer, "Reduced thermal focusing and birefringence in zigzag slab geometry crystalline lasers," IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. QE-19, pp. 1351-1354, Sept. 1983.
39. J. M. Eggleston, T. J. Kane, K. Kuhn, J. Unternahrer, and R. L. Byer, "The slab geometry laser - Part I: Theory," IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. QE-20, pp. 289-301, Mar. 1984.
40. S. De Silvestri, P. Laporta, V. Magni, and O. Svelto, "Solid-state laser unstable resonators with tapered reflectivity mirrors: The super-Gaussian approach," IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 24, pp. 1172-1177, June 1988.
41. S. De Silvestri, P. Laporta, V. Magni, O. Svelto, and B. Majocchi, "Unstable laser resonators with super-Gaussian mirrors," Opt. Lett., vol. 13, pp. 201-203, Mar. 1988.
42. S. De Silvestri, V. Magni, O. Svelto, and G. Valentini, "Lasers with super-Gaussian mirrors," IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 26, pp. 1500-1509, Sept. 1990.
43. P. Lavigne, N. McCarthy, A. Parent, and K. J. Snell, "Laser mode control with variable reflectivity mirrors," Can. J. Phys., vol. 66, pp. 888-895, Oct. 1988.
44. J. Richards and A. McInnes, "Versatile, efficient, diode-pumped miniature slab laser," Opt Lett., vol. 20, pp. 371-373, Feb. 1995.
45. D. Ottaway, D. Mudge, M. W. Hamilton, J. Munch, and P. J. Veitch, "Stable, high-power Nd:YAG lasers for gravitational wave interferometers," presented at the Int. Quantum Electron. Conf., Sydney, Australia, 1996.
46. D. Dawes, "Nd:YAG-the versatile high-power solid-state laser crystal," Ind. Laser Rev., pp. 9-10, Mar. 1995.
47. W. Koechner, Solid-State Laser Engineering, 3rd Ed. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1992, ch. 1, 3.
48. A. E. Siegman, Lasers, A. Kelly, Ed. Mill Valley, CA: Univ. Sci. Books, 1986.
49. C. Paré, "Optimum laser beam profile for maximum energy extraction from a saturable amplifier," Opt. Commun., vol. 123, pp. 762-776, Feb. 1996.