High-average power operation of pulsed Nd:glass slab lasers

Abstract

High-average-power, highly efficient solid-state lasers are desirable, especially for application to material processing, X-ray generation and pumping source of Ti: sapphire laser. In these applications, a large host material to irradiate high energy are required. A laser glass of a large size with an optical homogeneity of ± 1× 10-6 can be easily obtained, but high-frequency operation of glass laser is limited due to the low thermal conductivity of glass. Dane1 operated the Nd :glass flashlamp-pumped zig-zag amplifier at maximum repetition frequency of 3Hz. The array Nd:glass slab laser2 could be operated at higher repetition frequency. In this paper, the optical characteristics of the array Nd:glass slab laser operated at high repetition frequency are shown.