183-W, M{sup 2} = 2.4 Yb:YAG Q -switched laser

Journal Article · Mon Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1999 · Optics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.24.000154· OSTI ID:342702

Honea, E C; Beach, R J; Mitchell, S C ^[1]; Avizonis, P V ^[2]

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1. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, L-441, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, California 94551 (United States)
2. Boeing Information, Space Defense Systems, MS SZ-15, 2800 Westminster Boulevard, Seal Beach, California 90740 (United States)

We have fabricated a diode-array end-pumped Yb:YAG rod laser with output powers greater than 200thinspthinspW cw and 195thinspthinspW Q -switched at 5thinspthinspkHz. At an output power of 183thinspthinspW and a repetition rate of 5thinspthinspkHz, the beam quality was measured to be M{sup 2}=2.4 . The laser design incorporates a hollow lens duct to concentrate the diode pump light for delivery to the end of the laser rod while maintaining access to the laser beam. This configuration provides increased flexibility for the resonator design and permits the use of birefringence compensation in the cavity to yield polarized output with increased efficiency. Using the recently described birefringence compensation method of Clarkson {ital et al.}thinspthinsp[in {ital Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics } (Optical Society of America, Washington, D.C., 1998), paper CTuI3], we obtained 112thinspthinspW of cw power with a polarized beam of M{sup 2}=3.2 . {copyright} {ital 1999} {ital Optical Society of America}

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 342702
• Journal Information: Optics Letters, Journal Name: Optics Letters Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 24; ISSN 0146-9592; ISSN OPLEDP
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
BIREFRINGENCE
OPTICAL PUMPING
POWER RANGE 100-1000 W
PULSE GENERATORS
Q-SWITCHING
SOLID STATE LASERS