Development of a 25 W TEM/sub 00/ diode-pumped Nd:YLF laser

Summary form only given. In the past decade, there have been significant strides in the development of high power diode-pumped solid-state lasers (DPSSL). DPSSL´s are already available in commercial products employed in a variety of applications. Despite this progress, scaling to higher power with good efficiency still remains an obstacle. There have been a number of schemes developed to reduce the magnitude of the thermal lens, including slabs, disk designs, and end-pumping of Nd:YLF. Although these systems have demonstrated high average power, Nd:YLF is desirable in some industrial Q-switching applications for its less severe thermal lensing and high capacity energy storage. To summarize, we have developed a diode-pumped Nd:YLF laser with TEM/sub 00/ output power greater than 20 W and exceptional dynamic range. The laser system has also been successfully Q-switched at repetition rates as high as 20 KHz.