УДК: 621.373.8

A cavity for enhancing the brightness of lasers with an induced thermal lens in the active element

Alekseev, V.N., Volkov, A.S., Liber, V.I.

Publication in Journal of Optical Technology

For Russian citation (Opticheskii Zhurnal):

Алексеев В.Н., Волков А.С., Либер В.И. Резонатор для увеличения яркости излучения лазеров с наведенной тепловой линзой в активном элементе // Оптический журнал. 2014. Т. 81. № 9. С. 73–79.

Alekseev V.N., Volkov A.S., Liber V.I. A cavity for enhancing the brightness of lasers with an induced thermal lens in the active element [in Russian] // Opticheskii Zhurnal. 2014. V. 81. № 9. P. 73–79.

For citation (Journal of Optical Technology):

V. N. Alekseev, V. I. Liber, and A. S. Volkov, "A cavity for enhancing the brightness of lasers with an induced thermal lens in the active element," Journal of Optical Technology. 81(9), 540-544 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1364/JOT.81.000540

Abstract:

This paper proposes the layout of a cavity with planoconvex mirrors for reducing the angular divergence of radiation due to the formation of a large diameter of the zeroth transverse mode. It is shown that installing the active element close to a flat mirror makes it possible to significantly reduce the length of the laser cavity by more rapidly reducing the Fresnel number for the focused beam. A discussion is presented of the optical layout and the results of a study of the characteristics of a laser system that combines a master oscillator and a two-pass, two-stage amplifier. At a relatively low pulse-repetition rate (100 Hz), about 30% of the pulse energy is lost at the output polarizer of the laser. The pulse-energy losses are eliminated by establishing a ninety-degree rotation of the polarization of the radiation between the amplifier stages.

Keywords:

diode-pumped laser, laser rangefinder, zeroth transverse mode, thermal lens

OCIS codes: 140.3489, 140.3410, 140.3570, 140.3280

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