Characterization of high average power Nd:GGG slab lasers

Author

Yoshida, Kunio ; Yoshida, Hidetsugu ; Kato, Yoshiaki

Author_Institution

Inst. of Laser Eng., Osaka Univ., Japan

Volume

24

Issue

6

fYear

1988

fDate

6/1/1988 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1188

Lastpage

1192

Abstract

Performance characteristics of zig-zag optical path Nd:GGG slab lasers are reported. The sizes of the crystals are 6/sup t/ mm*10/sup w/ mm*100/sup l/ mm and 10/sup t/ mm*18/sup w/*167/sup l/ mm. These crystal slabs were polished with surface flatness of lambda /5 ( lambda =6328 AA), surface roughness of 8 AA rms, and surface parallelism of 10 s. In normal model oscillation, average output powers of 45 W were obtained with the smaller slab and 145 W with the larger slab. In Q-switched operation, an average output power of 11 W has been obtained, with a pulse width of 10 ns and repetition rate of 20 Hz. Long operating life has been also achieved by suppressing solarization of the Nd:GGG crystal with UV-cutoff filters placed in the pumping cavity.<>

Keywords

Q-switching; gadolinium compounds; neodymium; solid lasers; 11 W; 145 W; 45 W; 6328 AA; GdGG:Nd slab lasers; GdGa5O12:Nd; Nd:GGG slab lasers; Q-switched operation; UV-cutoff filters; output power; pulse width; pumping cavity; repetition rate; solarization; surface flatness; surface parallelism; surface roughness; zig-zag optical path; Adaptive optics; Crystals; Neodymium; Optical distortion; Optical filters; Optical pumping; Optical surface waves; Power lasers; Rough surfaces; Slabs;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.243

Filename

243