The Innoslab amplifier comprises a diode-laser partially end-pumped thin slab crystal and a folded single-pass optical amplification path. While this configuration differs in many respects from other slab amplifiers, it shares characteristics with partially end-pumped rod amplifiers. It combines outstanding thermal management, efficiency, and beam quality in the 100 W to 1 kW power range. In this paper, we review amplifiers for a wide range of operation regimes and laser materials.
A diode-pumped, single-frequency laser system emitting at 935 nm has recently been developed to serve as the transmitter for water vapor differential absorption lidar (DIAL) measurements. This laser uses Nd:YGG (Y 3 Ga 5 O 12 ) as the active medium and emits radiation directly at 935 nm without the need of additional frequency conversion processes. The system was diode-pumped at 806 nm and was built up in a master-oscillator-poweramplifier configuration. It generates more than 30 mJ of pulse energy at 100 Hz repetition rate with a beam quality (M 2 ) of better than 1.4. Since water vapor DIAL demands for stringent requirements of the spectral properties those were carefully investigated in the scope of this paper. Single-frequency operation is achieved by injection seeding and active length control of the oscillator cavity. to ∼0.4 nm centered around 935.31 nm. Values of the spectral purity of >99.996% were determined using long-pass absorption measurements in the atmosphere exceeding the requirements by a large margin. Finally, for the first time water vapor DIAL measurements were performed using a Nd:YGG laser. The reported results show much promise of these directly pumped lasers at 935 nm for future spaceborne but also airborne water vapor lidar systems.
A diode-pumped Q-switched and injection-seeded single-frequency laser, generating tunable laser radiation at 935 nm, is presented. Using Nd:YGG (Y 3 Ga 5 O 12) as the active medium, the laser that was developed to serve as a transmitter for water-vapor lidar measurements. The configuration consists of a stable resonator in rod geometry that is injection seeded by a narrowband diode laser and stabilized by the ramp-and-fire technique. Energy scaling was done in a power amplifier in slab geometry. Both oscillator and amplifier crystal were diode pumped at 806 nm. More than 30 mJ pulse energy at 100 Hz repetition rate with a beam propagation factor of M 2 < 1.4 and pulse duration of 52 ns in single-frequency mode were generated. To our knowledge this is the first direct generation of 935 nm Q-switched pulses from Nd:YGG suitable for water-vapor measurements. The reported results show great promise of this laser in applications where high efficiency and reduced complexity is indispensable, such as for spaceborne or airborne water-vapor lidar instruments.
For the CO 2 and CH 4 IPDA lidar CHARM-F two single frequency Nd:YAG based MOPA systems were developed. Both lasers are used for OPO/OPA-pumping in order to generate laser radiation at 1645 nm for CH 4 detection and 1572 nm for CO 2 detection. By the use of a Q-switched, injection seeded and actively length-stabilized oscillator and a one-stage INNOSLAB amplifier about 85 mJ pulse energy could be generated for the CH 4 system. For the CO 2 system the energy was boosted in second INNOSLAB-stage to about 150 mJ. Both lasers emit laser pulses of about 30 ns pulse duration at a repetition rate of 100 Hz.
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