4.55 kW LD end-pumped Nd:YAG surface gain slab laser

Abstract

To improve the laser output power of a single module, we report on a master-oscillator Nd:YAG surface gain slab laser system with up to 4.55 kW of continuous-wave output power. The stable output power of the slab laser is achieved in the plane-parallel resonator with the 4f system. Image relaying along the slow axis is used to obtain the uniform distribution of pumping light in the slab width direction, and the methods of spatial multiplexing and polarization multiplexing are used to increase the density of pump power. The experimental results provided the basis of the optimization of high power slab lasers.

High-Power, High-Purity HG0n Hermite–Gaussian Laser Beam Generation in Cascaded Large Aspect Ratio Slabs

“…Slabs with large aspect ratios have been widely used in laser systems because of their large gain volume, great pump uniformity, and favorable thermal management [16][17][18]. Since the zig-zag optical path in the slab averages the thermal gradient, there is almost no first-order thermal lens effect, making it a promising method for extracting higher power while simultaneously maintaining good beam quality.…”