Comparative study of Nd:YAG solar laser performance in end-pumping and side-pumping configurations

Solar-pumped solid-state lasers are promising for many applications. Since the report of the first sun-pumped solid-state laser, several pumping schemes have been proposed for enhancing the solar laser performance. Although the most efficient laser systems have end-pumping approaches, side-pumping configurations are very suitable for laser power scaling. This paper reports on experimental comparisons between the performances of Nd:YAG solar lasers by using either end-pumping or side-pumping techniques.