An Astigmatic Unstable Resonator with an Intracavity Deformable Mirror

Conference · Sun Jul 21 04:00:00 EDT 1991

OSTI ID:5326456

Neal, D. R. ^[1]; McMillin, P. L. ^[2]; Michie, R. B. ^[3]

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1. Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
2. Kaman Aerospace Corp., Tucson, AZ (United States)
3. Mission Research Corp., Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Many side-pumped lasers exhibit significant index gradients across the gain region aperture. For pulsed lasers where these gradients are time dependent, extraction with good beam quality requires the use of an adaptive optic. Since these inhomogeneities are systematic, wavefront correction can be performed with a model deformable mirror. We have designed a resonator which uses a cylindrically deformable mirror to correct for wavefront aberrations in a pulsed nuclear-reactor-driven laser. The mirror is capable of correcting up to ten waves of cylindrical focus error while maintaining tip/tilt alignment of the resonator. It is based around the flat plate bending using magnetostrictive actuators. A cylindrical intracavity beam expander is used to image the DM into the laser gain region. The beam expander can be adjusted to vary the resonator magnification in one axis, or to control the stability of the resonator. The mirror is controlled closed loop using a four channel wavefront sensor and a digital control system.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 5326456
• Report Number(s): SAND--91-2850C; CONF-9107115--50; ON: DE91018815
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
426002* -- Engineering-- Lasers & Masers-- (1990-)
ACTUATORS
AMPLIFICATION
BEAM OPTICS
BEAM SHAPING
CAVITY RESONATORS
DESIGN
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
ELEMENTS
EQUIPMENT
FOCUSING
GAIN
LASERS
METALS
MIRRORS
OPTICAL PUMPING
PUMPING
RESONATORS
SUBSTRATES
TITANIUM
TRANSITION ELEMENTS