Hidemi Tajima

Performance of composite glass slab laser

Three-layer composite glass slab lasers were fabricated using optical contact and thermal fusion methods, and their characteristics were examined in an attempt to develop a high-peak-power glass laser able to deliver a high-quality beam at a high repetition rate operation. The optical characteristics, laser characteristics, and limitation of the output of these composite slabs and the monolithic slab are compared. It is found that thermal birefringence effects were reduced in the case of the composite slabs in comparison to the monolithic slab at the same output during repetitive operation, thereby maintaining a high level of beam quality. A doping amount of Nd/sub 2/O/sub 3/ of 6 wt.% was optimum for increasing the single pass gain of the composite slabs. An optimum thickness of doping layer exists for keeping gain high while maintaining thermal birefringence effects at a low level. >

Development Of High Power Solid State Lasers At HOYA Corp.

Several lasers are, or have been, developed at the HOYA Laser Laboratory: Conventional YAG-rod lasers, glass fiber bundle lasers and moving glass slab lasers. Slab lasers are considered the engineering answer to the demand of higher average power. We obtained 386 W with a moving glass slab laser. Parts of the program are also erbium doped YAG and glass lasers. We developed a stable and reliable 10-W output 3-μm Er:YAG laser. All models have been developed with a specific application in mind,