Abstract
Long baseline laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors will require at least 30-100W of laser power that has low intensity and frequency noise, and can be mode-matched into the high finesse optical cavities that form the arms of the interferometer. We are developing a Nd:YAG laser for this application, using the technique of injection locking of medium and high power lasers. We have chosen this approach because injection locking allows one to extract power efficiently from the gain medium, prevent parasitic modes, and to impose the good mode and frequency stability characteristics of the master laser on the slave laser. However, the injection locking process requires that the frequency of the slave oscillator be tuned to that of the master oscillator to within the locking range. Since the locking range is proportional to the square root of the ratio of the injected power to the slave oscillator power, it may be necessary to use a multi-stage injection locked chain of lasers to obtain high output powers.
© 1996 Optical Society of America
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