High average power (10-50W) slow mode-locked lasers operating with repetition rates of a few MHz provide a unique combination of high peak power, short pulse duration, and high brightness that makes them ideal for applications in pulsed laser ablation and nonlinear optics. With peak powers in the MW range and near diffraction-limited output beams, focussed intensities can exceed 1012W/cm2: sufficient for ablation of most solid materials or to saturate nonlinear optical interactions.
High power diode pumped solid state lasers are auspicious sources for various applications in material processing. The solid state laser we report on is a Nd:YAG slab laser, that is partially end pumped from two ends by the line focus of two diode laser stacks. The pumped volume has a rectangular cross section. The resonator is configured, so that it is stable in the plane of small dimension and off axis unstable in the plane of large dimension of the gain cross section. Unlike conventional slab laser design, in which the laser beam takes zick zack path inside the slab crystal, in the present design the beam goes straight through the crystal with perpendicular end faces.
A Nd:YAG slab is partially end-pumped by a diode laser stack with three diode laser bars. The pumped volume has a rectangular cross section. A hybrid resonator which is stable in the plane of small dimension and off-axis unstable in the plane of large dimension of the gain cross section was used, in order to obtain highly efficient laser operation at diffraction limited beam quality. In this paper, the laser design and experimental results are reported. 31.2 W output power was obtained with M2 equals 1.3 in the unstable plane and M2 equals 1.7 in the stable plane. 38.6 W output power was obtained with M2 equals 1.7 in the unstable plane and M2 equals 3.9 in the stable plane.
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