High energy diode-pumped sapphire face-cooled Nd:glass multi-slab amplifier. (November 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Huang, Tingrui; Huang, Wenfa; Wang, Jiangfeng; Lu, Xinghua; Pan, Xue; Guo, Jiangtao; Fan, Wei; Li, Xuechun
• Is Part Of: Optics & laser technology. Volume 107(2018)
• Page Start: 415
• Page End: 423
• Publication Date: 2018-11
• Subjects: Solid-state laser -- Laser amplifier -- Thermal effects -- Neodymium glass; Optics -- Periodicals; Lasers -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 621.366
• DOI: 10.1016/j.optlastec.2018.06.005
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0030-3992

Abstract

Highlights: A novel heat-removal structure based on sapphire cooled Nd:glass slab was proposed. The thermal effect analysis results of a sapphire cooled Nd:glass assembly were shown. A pump coupling system for slab amplifier was designed and its energy transmission, pump beam distribution were measured. The wavefront aberration for the amplifier head was measured and its Legendre coefficients were calculated. The energy, energy stability, near and far field profiles of a solid cooled multi-pass amplifier were presented. Abstract: We investigated the performance of a multi-slab Nd:glass laser amplifier using a sapphire face-cooled design. The experimental amplification of 10-ns pulses, to an output energy of 560 mJ at a repetition rate of 1 Hz with an energy stability of 0.39% RMS was achieved, when pumped by 10 J of diode energy at 802 nm, corresponding to an optical to optical efficiency of 5.6%. The sapphire-cooled Nd:glass concept is a novel demonstration for a diode-pumped laser amplification to the sub-joule level and this concept holds promise of achieving higher energies and repetition rates in multi-slab amplifiers.