100  J-level nanosecond pulsed diode pumped solid state laser

Abstract

We report on the successful demonstration of a 100 J-level, diode pumped solid state laser based on cryogenic gas cooled, multi-slab ceramic Yb:YAG amplifier technology. When operated at 175 K, the system delivered a pulse energy of 107 J at a 1 Hz repetition rate and 10 ns pulse duration, pumped by 506 J of diode energy at 940 nm, corresponding to an optical-to-optical efficiency of 21%. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the highest energy obtained from a nanosecond pulsed diode pumped solid state laser. This demonstration confirms the energy scalability of the diode pumped optical laser for experiments laser architecture.

Transparent ultrafine Yb3+:Y2O3 laser ceramics fabricated by spark plasma sintering

“…Transparent polycrystalline laser ceramics with an optical quality comparable to that of single crystals have a valuable role in solid‐state laser fields. In fact, transparent Yb‐doped yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) ceramics have been widely utilized as laser materials for high‐average‐power and high‐energy‐class diode‐pumped solid‐state lasers . Typical steps for fabricating such high‐grade laser ceramics with an average grain size of ~1 μm consist of coprecipitation for obtaining an ideal precursor powder, followed by slip‐casting the powder to achieve a high‐density green body, and pressureless vacuum sintering for attaining full densification .…”

“…In fact, transparent Yb-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) ceramics have been widely utilized as laser materials for high-average-power and highenergy-class diode-pumped solid-state lasers. [4][5][6][7][8] Typical steps for fabricating such high-grade laser ceramics with an average grain size of~1 lm consist of coprecipitation for obtaining an ideal precursor powder, followed by slip-casting the powder to achieve a high-density green body, and pressureless vacuum sintering for attaining full densification. 9 These fabrication steps have been applied to a wide variety of laser ceramics, not only for complex oxides but also sesquioxides such as Y 2 O 3 , Lu 2 O 3 , and Sc 2 O 3 .…”

A viable laser driver for a user plasma accelerator

“…Cooling with gas flow at cryogenic temperatures is a technique currently under advanced development for high average power, diode pumped Yb:YAG lasers, using a multi-slab architecture. This technique has been adopted for the realization of DiPOLE Yb:YAG amplifiers, targeting the generation of 10 J and 100 J ns laser pulses at a repetition rate of 10 Hz [12,13,21]. It has also be applied to the development of an Yb:CaF2 high energy amplifier [22].…”

Compact Aberration-Free Relay-Imaging Multi-Pass Layouts for High-Energy Laser Amplifiers

“…In the last two decades, the output energy of diode pumped high energy lasers based on Ytterbium doped materials has scaled the achievable output energies into the range of tens of Joules for nanosecond pulses [1], as well as for femtosecond pulses within laser architectures based on the chirped pulse amplification technique [2]. The major advantage of these materials is the long upper state lifetime in comparison to neodymium-doped materials, which are widely used in flash-lamp pumped, high energy systems.…”