End-pumped thin-rod Yb:YAG amplifier for laser processing

S. Takasaki; Y. Tsujioka; M. Fukuda; S. Matsubara; Sakae Kawato; Takao Kobayashi

doi:10.1117/12.497932

3 March 2003 End-pumped thin-rod Yb:YAG amplifier for laser processing

S. Takasaki, Y. Tsujioka, M. Fukuda, S. Matsubara, Sakae Kawato, Takao Kobayashi

Proceedings Volume 4831, First International Symposium on High-Power Laser Macroprocessing; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.497932
Event: LAMP 2002: International Congress on Laser Advanced Materials Processing, 2002, Osaka, Japan

Abstract

The Yb (ytterbium) laser material is promising for high-power all-solid-state ultrashort pulse lasers because of its high quantum efficiency and wide gain spectrum. A didoe end-pumped technology is developed for high-average-power and efficient all-solid state ultrashort pulse lasers with high beam quality output. Two 100 W CW-LDs are used for pumping and the beams are focused on the end surfaces of a thin and long Yb:YAG rod. A pair of parallel side surfaces of the rod is placed in contact with cupper heat sinks to remove heat. A one-dimensional distribution of thermal stress induced birefringence was observed in the rod by this simple heat flow. The loss due to thermal birefringence was measured to be smaller than 3%, when the probe beam was linearly polarized in parallel or perpendicular to the direction of cooling. It can be expected theoretically that a moderate single-path gain of 4 for efficient amplification and the optical conversion efficiency of 50% are realized for multimode operation with a pump power of 200 W. In the experiment, output power was measured to be 55 W with beam quality factor of M_x² x M_y² = 5.5 x 6.0 and 27 W with M_x² x M_y² = 1.3 x 1.4 for simple plane-plane linear cavity configuration with no thermal lens compensations.

Citation Download Citation

S. Takasaki, Y. Tsujioka, M. Fukuda, S. Matsubara, Sakae Kawato, and Takao Kobayashi "End-pumped thin-rod Yb:YAG amplifier for laser processing", Proc. SPIE 4831, First International Symposium on High-Power Laser Macroprocessing, (3 March 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.497932

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