Diode-pumped alkali vapor lasers are famous in the field of laser for their significant advantages such as very high quantum efficiency (Cs 99.5%, Rb 98.1%, K 95.2%), good thermal management performance and excellent beam output quality etc. A rate equation model fully considering the spatial distributions of pumping light and oscillating light is established under the hypothesis of quasi-two-level energy system of DPALs in this paper. Meanwhile, expressions of threshold pumping power, mode-matching efficiency and output power and slop efficiency in low pumping and strong pumping, respectively, are obtained. Then, the influences of mode-matching efficiency on working performance of DPALs are discussed and analyzed. Results show that mode-matching efficiency mainly impacts on threshold pumping power, output power and slop efficiency in low pumping but that nearly has no effects in strong pumping. Therefore, this model benefits the further research of DPALs.
Kilowatts class diode-pumped Cs vapor laser (DPCL) has been realized and this kind of lasers have military applications potentially for its high output power with high efficiency. Pumped by a fiber coupled laser diode, the key operating parameters of a DPCL are studied, including the spot size of focused pumping light, pressure ratio of buffer gases, vapor cell length, temperature of Cs vapor and reflectivity of output coupler. The spot size is properly chosen in the consideration of both the intensity scalability and mode matching. Pressure ratio is optimized under a modest pressure of mixed gases of helium and ethane. Under the optimized pressure ratio, the Cs vapor can absorb the pumping energy and convert it into laser energy efficiently. Besides, the temperature and reflectivity are also optimized to operate the DPCL in optimum state. The results have significant instructions for the experimental design of DPCL.
The working mechanism of the non-chain pulsed DF laser is analyzed in this paper, then the glow discharge with the method of UV-preionized discharge is displayed, and finally the experimental investigation on the output characteristics of non-chain pulsed DF laser is done. With SF6, which is non-toxic and non-corrosive, and D2 as the active medium, the dependence of the output characteristics of pulsed DF laser on the gas mixture ratio and the total pressure are investigated. In the experiment, the optimal gas mixture ratio of SF6-D2 and total pressure are 10:1 and 10.5kPa, respectively. At the same time, by making a measurement on the output spectrum of DF laser with a DF laser spectrum analyzer, 17 P-branch transition lines are achieved and the majority of output energy is concentrated on several lines near the 3.876μm line. The laser beam divergence angles in horizontal and vertical directions are 1mrad by using the laser spot ablation method. At the charging voltage of 39kV, under the best working condition(SF6: D2 = 10:1, Ptotal= 10.5kPa), the maximum single pulse output energy of 3.58J, pulse duration of 215ns, peak power of 16.65 MW, and electro-optical conversion efficiency of 2.08%, are obtained.
Diode-pumped alkali-vapor laser (DPAL) is a kind of laser attracted much attention for its merits, such as high quantum efficiency, excellent beam quality, favorable thermal management, and potential scalability to high power and so on. Based on the rate-equation theory of end-pumped DPAL, the performances of DPAL using Cs-vapor collisionally broadened by helium are simulated and studied. With the increase of helium pressure, the numerical results show that: 1) the absorption line-width increases and the stimulated absorption cross-section decreases contrarily; 2) the threshold pumping power decreases to minimum and then rolls over to increase linearly; 3) the absorption efficiency rises to maximum initially due to enough large stimulated absorption cross-section in the far wings of collisionally broadened D2 transition (absorption transition), and then begins to reduce; 4) an optimal value of helium pressure exists to obtain the highest output power, leading to an optimal optical-optical efficiency. Furthermore, to generate the self-oscillation of laser, a critical value of helium pressure occurs when small-signal gain equals to the threshold gain.
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