Abstract

Diode-pumped lasers have the potential of high efficiency, compactness and air-cooling. As an example, a 30 mJ diode-end-pumped air-cooled Nd:YAG MOPA (now commercially available from Thomson-CSF Laser as DIVA) was already reported (Ref ¹) The oscillator and the amplifier used the same pumping head, each made of a 1-kW-peak-power high-brightness stack coupled to a Nd:YAG crystal by a lens duct (Fig 1). The oscillator delivered an energy of 11 mJ within a 12-ns long pulse and a TEM₀₀ mode (M² between 1 and 1.5) After four passes in the amplifier, the energy increased to 31 mJ while beam quality was preserved.

© 2000 IEEE