6.5 kW, Yb:YAG Ceramic Thin Disk Laser
- AFRL/Directed Energy Directorate, 3550 Aberdeen Blvd, SE, Kirtland AFB, NM 87117 (United States)
- Boeing LTS Inc., P. O. Box 5670 MC RN-M1, Kirtland AFB, NM 87185 (United States)
The operation of a 1030 nm, single, thin disk laser which produced 6.5 kW of laser output power with 57 percent slope efficiency is reported. The Yb:YAG ceramic gain element is 200 {mu}m thick, bonded to a 1 mm, undoped, ceramic YAG cap. The gain element is pumped by diodes at 940 nm. The maximum incident pump intensity was 5 kW/cm{sup 2}, which yielded an output intensity of 2.6 kW/cm{sup 2} of multimode laser radiation. Rigrod analysis suggests that the laser operates with inhomogeneous gain saturation. This is attributed to the enhanced, spatial-hole-burning effect when the gain element is adjacent to a mirror. The pump threshold and output intensities were independent of pump spot size, which validates area scaling. Observed thermal lensing contributions include thermal-expansion-induced disk flexure, pump-edge-induced temperature profile and a strong thermal imprint of the cooling nozzle due to the direct jet impingement on the high reflection (HR) coated side. Weak absorption of the 1030 nm intracavity intensity in the undoped cap and/or the anti-reflection (AR) coating led to excess heating that limited the extracted power intensity. These results suggest ceramic Yb:YAG can be scaled to higher powers using optimized thin disk elements and improved disk thermal management techniques.
- OSTI ID:
- 21454848
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1278, Issue 1; Conference: International symposium on high power laser ablation 2010, Santa Fe, NM (United States), 18-22 Apr 2010; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3507169; (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0094-243X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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