Daniel E. Klimek

Energy scaling and beam quality studies of a zigzag solid-state plastic dye laser

Studies of the energy scaling and beam quality improvement of a long-pulse laser pumped solid-state dye laser using a unique new zigzag optical configuration are presented. A beam quality of 1.7 XDL was measured using an unstable optical cavity at a laser output of 200 mJ. Single pulse energies as high as 1 J have been achieved. The laser has been operated at 5 Hz with an average output of about 250 mJ for runs up to 200 pulses.

Power scaling of a flashlamp-pumped Cr:LiSAF thin-slab zig-zag laser

We report on the power scaling of a flashlamp-pumped Cr:LiSrAlF/sub 6/ thin-slab zig-zag laser operating at repetition rates up to 5 Hz. Average output power of 44 W with pulse energies of 8.8 J was achieved operating with a stable cavity. Excellent medium control was also obtained during this operation. Also demonstrated at 5 Hz was operation at energies /spl sim/ 0.5 J in Q-switched mode with unstable optics and bandwidth control, beam quality < 1.5 XDL, bandwidth /spl sim/ 1 GHz, and root-mean-square beam jitter of less than half of a diffraction limited far-field spot radius.

Chirp control of a single-mode, good beam quality, zigzag dye laser

We report a substantial reduction of frequency chirp of a single-mode laser-pumped zigzag dye laser. A linear optical cavity using counterpropagating orthogonally polarized waves was injection-seeded at 568 mn and operated with a laser output of about 1 J. The chirp was controlled by an intracavity Pockels cell that was configured to add optical density at a rate which counterbalanced the decrease in optical density due to dye-solvent heating during the /spl sim/1-/spl mu/s laser pulse. Heterodyne measurements were used to determine that the bandwidth was near the transform limit and chirp rate of /spl sim/1 MHz//spl mu/s. The beam quality of the laser was measured at 10 Hz as 1.7 XDL.

High power, long life, excellent beam quality solid state plastic dye laser

Summary from only given. We have developed a plastic dye laser that can compete with other solid-state lasers. In the visible spectral region we believe that solid state plastic dye ThinZag lasers may now be the preferred devices for many applications.

High power, repetitively pulsed Cr:LiSAF thin slab zig-zag power oscillator

Summary form only given. We have been developing a high energy per pulse, high power Cr:LiSAF laser for an unconventional imaging application. The final ground based transmitter device is envisioned to consist of three, 30 J beams with a beam quality <1.5 XDL, operating at a wavelength that is matched to the Cs atomic filter line (852 nm), and with a bandwidth of 2 GHz. This device is to operate at repetition rates of at least 5 Hz. A single oscillator-preamplifier subsystem will inject three, multi-stage amplifier chains made up of a number of similar Cr:LiSAF zig-zag laser modules.

Flashlamp-pumped Cr:LiSAF thin slab zig-zag laser studies

We have demonstrated a flashlamp-pumped Cr:LiSAF zig-zag thin slab laser that has achieved laser output energies to 6.4 J from a single slab in a configuration capable of operation at high average power. This corresponds to an intrinsic photon efficiency of close to 35%. Tuning of the laser output from 800 to 900 nm was accomplished using an etalon with a free spectral range of 30,000 GHz. The laser bandwidth was narrowed to about 160 GHz (from a free-running bandwidth of about 250 GHz) and the laser output decreased by about a factor of 2. Further bandwidth control was demonstrated near the peak of the gain, around 830 nm, using three intracavity etalons with free spectral ranges of 30,000 GHz, 5,000 GHz, and 200 GHz, respectively. A bandwidth narrowed output of 8 GHz was observed. Beam quality was measured for the laser operating singly. The short, 40-ns Q-switched pulses resulted in beam qualities of about 2.2 XDL. It appears that the Q-switched pulse lengths did not provide adequate build-up time to form a good low-order mode. Better beam quality was observed in a free-running operating regime where longer pulses occurred. Under these operating conditions a beam quality of 1.35 times the diffraction limit was achieved.

Laser-pumped CKLiSAF zigzag laser

In Ref. 5 we have shown that the thermal quenching can induce a rolloff of the small signal gain as the pump power increases. As the gain and the energy per pulse in Q-switched operation are bound together, we can attribute the bad performances of Cr:LiSAF to higher quenching of fluorescence. In conclusion, Cr:LiSGaF is more suitable than Cr:LiSAF for the production of tunable pulses at high repetition rate under diode pumping.