Gaalas diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser. Final report 1 June 1971--1 June 1972

Technical Report · Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1972

OSTI ID:6759160

Allen, R B; Dierschke, E G

A summary of the major accomplishments and conclusions of a 12-month program to develop a laboratory model of a room-temperature GaAlAs diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser is presented. The major objective of the program was to investigate the cw TEM sub 00 performance of a diode-pumped laser operating in a temperature range compatible with practical applications in space. The laser developed on this program consisted of a room-temperature 120-device linear array of GaAlAs light-emitting diodes, coupled via a gold-coated, hemielliptical cylindrical reflector to a 1.5-mm diameter by 7.5-cm-long Nd:YAG laser rod. Temperature of the rod could be varied by thermoelectric cooling modules from room temperature to -/sup 220/C. The laser produced a cw TEM sub 00 output power of slightly over 80 mW for a laser rod temperature of -/sup 220/C. This represents the highest level of cw TEM sub 00 power reported to date for a diode-pumped laser. Due to cooling with thermoelectric modules, an optimum rod temperature exists where overall laser efficiency is a maximum. At the optimum rod temperature of -13/sup 0/C, a maximum laser efficiency of 0.089% was achieved. At this temperature, a cw TEM sub 00 output power of 64 mW was obtained for 72 watts of total electrical input power (48 watts for the diode array plus 24 watts for the thermoelectric coolers). TEM sub 00 operation was substantiated by beam profile scans and by measurements of beam divergence.

• Research Organization: Texas Instruments, Inc., Dallas (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: F33615-71-C-1772
• OSTI ID: 6759160
• Report Number(s): AD-907545
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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42 ENGINEERING
NEODYMIUM LASERS
OPERATION
PERFORMANCE
ALUMINIUM COMPOUNDS
ARSENIDES
COOLING
GALLIUM COMPOUNDS
GARNETS
THERMOELECTRIC REFRIGERATORS
YTTRIUM
APPLIANCES
ARSENIC COMPOUNDS
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
ELECTRIC APPLIANCES
ELEMENTS
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REFRIGERATORS
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420300* - Engineering- Lasers- (-1989)