Solar-pumped solid-state lasers

Journal Article · Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1988 · IEEE J. Quant. Electron.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/3.247· OSTI ID:6905159

Weksler, M; Shwartz, J

Results are presented for direct solar pumping of a ND:YAG rod laser. Stable CW output of more than 60 W was obtained with a slope efficiency exceeding 2 percent. A compound parabolic concentrator, designed to increase the solar radiation coupled into the laser rod, was used in these experiments. The results are consistent with predictions based on a simple solar-pumped laser model, which is also presented. Using this model, it is shown that existing laser materials with broad-band absorption characteristics (e.g., alexandrite and Nd:Cr:GSGG) have a potential for better than 10 percent overall conversion efficiency when solar pumped.

• Research Organization: EL-OP, Electro-Optics Industries, Rehovot (IL)
• OSTI ID: 6905159
• Journal Information: IEEE J. Quant. Electron.; (United States), Vol. 24:6
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
SOLID STATE LASERS
SOLAR CONCENTRATORS
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
EFFICIENCY
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
SOLAR RADIATION
EQUIPMENT
LASERS
RADIATIONS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
STELLAR RADIATION
420300* - Engineering- Lasers- (-1989)