Abstract

Commercial applications cover a diverse area from industrial, military, and medical applications. Diode pumped lasers have many advantages in applications. The diodes are compact, have low operating voltages, produce little heat, and have very long operating lifetimes. All of the advantages of laser diodes allow for development of reliable commercial products. Pumping a solid-state laser medium has several additional advantages. The multimode diode output can be converted efficiently into a TEM₀₀ mode. The solid state medium can store energy, which can be released in a Q-switched pulse. The solid- state materials can be operated in wavelength regimes that laser diodes can not achieve, in both the visible and infrared regions. The industrial applications of micro-machining and marking materials both use a Q-switched laser. The high peak power pulses from the Q-switched laser allow for ablation of material off of a surface. Semiconductor memory repair is a specific example where the advantageous properties of diode pumping quickly replaced all other laser sources. Continuous- wave diode pumped lasers have industrial applications in the generation of F.T. Raman spectra, where it will become possible to monitor the production of chemicals for pharmaceuticals. Military applications of laser ranging require that a system be efficient, compact, and highly reliable. As diode pumped laser energies increase and more wavelength diversity is achieved, diode pumped lasers will replace much of the current technology. Bio-technology applications include the development of optical trapping microscopes, where cells and small particles can be manipulated by the force exerted by a laser. The effects of drugs on individual cells can be studied, and many other applications are just now being developed by using an optical trapping microscope. Diode pumped solid-state lasers have the mode quality and stability that allow for the development of commercial microscope systems.

© 1992 Optical Society of America