WO1991006994A1 - Phase-locked, fibre bundle excited, stacked slabs, laser system - Google Patents

Phase-locked, fibre bundle excited, stacked slabs, laser system Download PDF

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Publication number
WO1991006994A1
WO1991006994A1 PCT/AU1990/000511 AU9000511W WO9106994A1 WO 1991006994 A1 WO1991006994 A1 WO 1991006994A1 AU 9000511 W AU9000511 W AU 9000511W WO 9106994 A1 WO9106994 A1 WO 9106994A1
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
slabs
laser
slab
section
stacked
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/AU1990/000511
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
John Leonard Hughes
Original Assignee
Australian Electro Optics Pty. Ltd.
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Australian Electro Optics Pty. Ltd. filed Critical Australian Electro Optics Pty. Ltd.
Publication of WO1991006994A1 publication Critical patent/WO1991006994A1/en

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S3/00—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range
    • H01S3/05—Construction or shape of optical resonators; Accommodation of active medium therein; Shape of active medium
    • H01S3/06—Construction or shape of active medium
    • H01S3/07—Construction or shape of active medium consisting of a plurality of parts, e.g. segments
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S3/00—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range
    • H01S3/09—Processes or apparatus for excitation, e.g. pumping
    • H01S3/091—Processes or apparatus for excitation, e.g. pumping using optical pumping
    • H01S3/094—Processes or apparatus for excitation, e.g. pumping using optical pumping by coherent light
    • H01S3/0941—Processes or apparatus for excitation, e.g. pumping using optical pumping by coherent light of a laser diode
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S3/00—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range
    • H01S3/23—Arrangements of two or more lasers not provided for in groups H01S3/02 - H01S3/22, e.g. tandem arrangements of separate active media
    • H01S3/2383—Parallel arrangements
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S5/00—Semiconductor lasers
    • H01S5/40—Arrangement of two or more semiconductor lasers, not provided for in groups H01S5/02 - H01S5/30
    • H01S5/4012—Beam combining, e.g. by the use of fibres, gratings, polarisers, prisms
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S5/00—Semiconductor lasers
    • H01S5/40—Arrangement of two or more semiconductor lasers, not provided for in groups H01S5/02 - H01S5/30
    • H01S5/4025—Array arrangements, e.g. constituted by discrete laser diodes or laser bar
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S5/00—Semiconductor lasers
    • H01S5/40—Arrangement of two or more semiconductor lasers, not provided for in groups H01S5/02 - H01S5/30
    • H01S5/4025—Array arrangements, e.g. constituted by discrete laser diodes or laser bar
    • H01S5/4031—Edge-emitting structures
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S5/00—Semiconductor lasers
    • H01S5/40—Arrangement of two or more semiconductor lasers, not provided for in groups H01S5/02 - H01S5/30
    • H01S5/4025—Array arrangements, e.g. constituted by discrete laser diodes or laser bar
    • H01S5/4031—Edge-emitting structures
    • H01S5/4062—Edge-emitting structures with an external cavity or using internal filters, e.g. Talbot filters

Definitions

  • This invention relates to a high power, phase-locked stacked, multi-slab, fluid cooled, optically fibre bundle excited coupled, laser oscillator system consisting of slabs of the laser medium stacked on top of each and spaced from each other by an amount just sufficient to allow for their fluid cooling, said closely stacked laser slabs being optically excited via a pair of their side surfaces with optical radiation of narrow spectral bandwidth which matches the absorption bands of the laser medium, conveyed from a
  • the laser beam is directed from slab to slab using a series of angled reflectors and the laser resonator is terminated by two externally positioned laser mirrors, one of which reflects the laser beam up to 100% whilst the other is semi-transparent with a reflectivity which could be as low as a few per cent in order to maximise the output beam coupling.
  • the invention has excitation light reflectors mounted above and below the stack of slabs so as to reflect any excitation radiation which is emitted through the top and bottom slab surfaces back into said slabs.
  • the laser beam generated within said invention can consist of a single beam of elliptical cross-section or a phase-locked array of laser beams of circular cross-section.
  • the invention has applications in the industrial, medical and defence fields. Summary of the Prior Art
  • Prior art stacked slab lasers were flashtube/arc lamp excited with said fiashtubes and arc lamps sandwiched between said slabs in said stack and their output beams were not phase-locked.
  • Prior art slab stack lasers were of the oscillator-amplifier "zig-zag" configuration in an effort to cancel the effects of thermally induced gradients utilising laser beams of circular cross-section which did not fully utilise the unique advantages of the rectangular configuration of the slab which favours the use of both eliiptical cross-section laser beams whose cross-section areas far exceeds that of a single laser beam of circular cross-section through the same slab laser medium.
  • the said large surfaces of these prior art stacked slab lasers were optically polished to allow the "zig-zag" critical angle reflections of the said laser beam being amplified.
  • the present invention overcomes the serious defects of prior art stacked slab lasers in that the said slabs are side excited so that the slab surfaces act as a wave guide, confining most of the excitation radiation within said slabs, via critical angle
  • a further advantage of the present invention over the prior art stacked slab laser systems is the fact that the fluid cooling space between said stacks does not contain any heat generating fiashtubes and arc lamps, significantly reducing the separation between said slabs required to cool them for a given input energy and allowing for the effective phase-locking of their output beams when each slab emits either a single laser beam of eliiptical cross-section or a series of phase-locked beams of circular cross-section.
  • Even a further advantage of the invention over the prior art stacked slab lasers is the fact that there are no electrical leads attached to the stack itself so there is no possibility of an electrical hazard existing at the output head of the said laser system.
  • oscillator and oscillator amplifier systems requires as much optically excited laser medium in as small a volume as possible.
  • Slab lasers offer such a solution in that stacks of laser slabs with side excitation of said slab can be over 95% laser medium per given volume, there being need for only very narrow cooling
  • the heating of the slab stacks is minimal, which in turn implies that the thermally induced distortion of the slabs is minimal and the beam quality far superior to prior art "zigzag" slab systems, where the zig-zaging was required because of said thermally induced distortions.
  • thermally induced distortions are minimised, direct beam paths through the said slab become effective as do their phase-locking capabilities.
  • Another object of the invention is to trap the excitation light within said slab stack by placing a 100% reflecting mirror at the pump wavelength above and below said stack.
  • Another object of the invention is to incur minimum thermal distortion of said slabs so that the laser beams being generated can be propagated directly through the said slabs without themselves being distorted by passing through distorted laser media as was the case with prior art systems due to the excessive thermal heating of said slabs during the excitation process.
  • a further object of the invention is to generate a laser beam of elliptical cross-section within the resonator of the invention thus providing a good match for the elongated, rectangular cross-section of a typical slab laser medium.
  • Yet a further object of the invention is to generate a series of laser beams of circular cross-section within the invention so that said beams can provide a good match for the elongated, rectangular cross-section of a typical slab laser medium.
  • Another object of the invention is to provide for the phase- locking of the laser beam array output emitted by the stacked slab array, the said phase-locking resulting from the fact that the output laser beam array has a common origin in a master oscillator or by the fact that they are coupled to each other as they are
  • Figure 1 shows a layout of the invention with the slabs stacked on top of each other and separated by a cooling fluid passage.
  • the laser resonator cavity is a folded path cavity terminated by one fully reflective and one partially transmissive mirror at the laser wavelength positioned near to the respective input and output ends of the top and bottom slabs respectively.
  • the laser resonator cavity is folded using 45° reflecting mirrors of up to 100%
  • Figure 2 shows the layout of the cross-section of the invention looking downwards from the top.
  • Figure 3 shows the configuration of the invention with its output consisting of a series of phase-locked laser beams of circular cross-section.
  • Figure 4 shows the oscillator configuration of the invention with phase-locked output beams which may be in the form of a single laser beam of elliptical cross-section or an array of laser beams of circular cross-section emitted by each slab.
  • Figure 5 shows the oscillator amplifier configuration of the invention with phase-locked output beams.
  • numeral 1 indicates the laser slab whilst numeral 2 indicates the anti-reflection coated end faces of said slabs 1.
  • Numeral 3 indicates the partially transmitting output mirror of elliptical cross-section whilst numeral 4 indicates the beam turning mirrors of rectangular cross-section used to direct the laser beam being generated from slab to slab with the stack of said slab Numeral 5 indicates the second resonator mirror which is 100% reacting at the laser wavelength, and is of elliptical cross- section.
  • numeral 6 indicates the high power, high quality laser output beam of elliptical cross-section generated by the invention.
  • Numeral 7 indicates the fluid used to cool said slab whilst numeral 8 indicates a reflector to reflect any escaping excitation light back into said stack of slab.
  • numeral 9 indicates a bundle of optical fibres used to convey the narrow spectral bandwidth excitation light from a remotely sited optical power supply (not shown) into said slab via the largest side face which need not be optically polished for this purpose.
  • numeral 10 indicates an array of phase-locked laser beams of circular cross-section being amplified in a slab of the invention.
  • numeral 11 indicates phase-locked laser beams being amplified in the invention which now has two end mirrors indicated by numeral 12 and 13 respectively, numeral 12 being 100% reflective at the lasing wavelength whilst numeral 13 is partially transmissive to emit the phase-locked output beam indicated by numeral 14.
  • numeral 15 indicates the input laser beam to be amplified by the invention after being split into an array of phase- locked laser beams by the adjustable beam splitter array indicated in part by numeral 16 with numeral 17 being the terminal 100% reflection mirror of the beam splitter array 16.
  • Input beam 15 may be composed of a single laser beam of eliiptical cross-section or an array of laser beams of circular cross-section.
  • the array of phase-locked input beams in the invention is indicated by numeral 18.
  • Numeral 19 indicates the amplified phase-locked output beam.
  • the invention has applications in the industrial, medical and defence fields demanding high laser beam powers.
  • the high power laser output beam of the invention has an elliptical cross-section, it is a relatively simple process to optically convert such a beam into one of circular cross-section whenever the need arises.
  • the thickness of the slab greatly exceeds the spacing between them used to flow the cooling fluid, it is possible to dispense with the turning mirrors 4 and phase-lock the outputs of the individual slab sectors when either suitable resonator mirrors are placed either side of said stack of slab or when they are fed with a series of coherent laser beams each of which is amplified in its own particular slab.

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  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Electromagnetism (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Plasma & Fusion (AREA)
  • Optics & Photonics (AREA)
  • Lasers (AREA)

Abstract

This invention relates to a powerful ans scaleable slab (1) laser system where slabs (1) are stacked on top of each other such that the laser beam being generated within the invention passes to and fro through said stack via optical polished face pairs (2), said resonator being formed by the output mirror (3), 45° beam reflectors (4) and the 100 % laser beam reflector (5), the output beam (6) being either a single beam of elliptical cross-section or a series of laser beams of circular cross-section. The slabs (1) are stacked on top of each other with coolant channel (7) being as small as possible whilst mirrors (8) trap the pump light within the invention. To minimise thermal heating of said slabs the diode excitation light is generated at a remote site and conveyed into the said slabs using bundles of optical fibres (9), said pump light entering via the unpolished side face pairs. The mirrors (3, 4, 5) may be replaced by one 100 % laser beam reflector (4) and one partially transmitting output mirror (3). In the laser amplifier arrangement, an input beam (15) is split such that each beam portion (18) passes through a respective slab (1). The invention has applications as a powerful laser beam generator in the industrial and defence fields.

Description

Phase-Locked, Fibre Bundle Excited,
Stacked Slabs, Laser System
Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a high power, phase-locked stacked, multi-slab, fluid cooled, optically fibre bundle excited coupled, laser oscillator system consisting of slabs of the laser medium stacked on top of each and spaced from each other by an amount just sufficient to allow for their fluid cooling, said closely stacked laser slabs being optically excited via a pair of their side surfaces with optical radiation of narrow spectral bandwidth which matches the absorption bands of the laser medium, conveyed from a
remotely sited optical power supply using optical fibre bundles.
Only one pair of the smaller sides of the laser medium slabs need to be optically polished to allow for the passage of the high quality laser beam. The laser beam is directed from slab to slab using a series of angled reflectors and the laser resonator is terminated by two externally positioned laser mirrors, one of which reflects the laser beam up to 100% whilst the other is semi-transparent with a reflectivity which could be as low as a few per cent in order to maximise the output beam coupling. The invention has excitation light reflectors mounted above and below the stack of slabs so as to reflect any excitation radiation which is emitted through the top and bottom slab surfaces back into said slabs. The laser beam generated within said invention can consist of a single beam of elliptical cross-section or a phase-locked array of laser beams of circular cross-section. The invention has applications in the industrial, medical and defence fields. Summary of the Prior Art
Prior art stacked slab lasers were flashtube/arc lamp excited with said fiashtubes and arc lamps sandwiched between said slabs in said stack and their output beams were not phase-locked.
The optical excitation of said slabs in the prior art slab stack lasers was via the largest faces of the said slabs and in the case of arc lamp and flashtube excitation, the process was highly
inefficient leading to severe thermal distortion of said slab. In the case where prior art slab lasers were laser diode excited, only single slabs were used. Prior art slab stack lasers were of the oscillator-amplifier "zig-zag" configuration in an effort to cancel the effects of thermally induced gradients utilising laser beams of circular cross-section which did not fully utilise the unique advantages of the rectangular configuration of the slab which favours the use of both eliiptical cross-section laser beams whose cross-section areas far exceeds that of a single laser beam of circular cross-section through the same slab laser medium. The said large surfaces of these prior art stacked slab lasers were optically polished to allow the "zig-zag" critical angle reflections of the said laser beam being amplified.
The present invention overcomes the serious defects of prior art stacked slab lasers in that the said slabs are side excited so that the slab surfaces act as a wave guide, confining most of the excitation radiation within said slabs, via critical angle
reflections, in particular, those between the largest, unpolished faces of said slabs. The present invention also significantly reduces the heat loading on said slabs because the most prolific heat generating light source is remotely sited with only its said matching light output being conveyed to the said slabs. A further advantage of the present invention over the prior art stacked slab laser systems is the fact that the fluid cooling space between said stacks does not contain any heat generating fiashtubes and arc lamps, significantly reducing the separation between said slabs required to cool them for a given input energy and allowing for the effective phase-locking of their output beams when each slab emits either a single laser beam of eliiptical cross-section or a series of phase-locked beams of circular cross-section. Even a further advantage of the invention over the prior art stacked slab lasers is the fact that there are no electrical leads attached to the stack itself so there is no possibility of an electrical hazard existing at the output head of the said laser system. Background of the Invention
The generation of powerful laser light using compact
oscillator and oscillator amplifier systems requires as much optically excited laser medium in as small a volume as possible.
Slab lasers offer such a solution in that stacks of laser slabs with side excitation of said slab can be over 95% laser medium per given volume, there being need for only very narrow cooling
channels between said slabs.
With the advent of high power laser diode pumping and multiple fibre bundle coupling of the stacked slabs to the remotely sited optical power supplies, the heating of the slab stacks is minimal, which in turn implies that the thermally induced distortion of the slabs is minimal and the beam quality far superior to prior art "zigzag" slab systems, where the zig-zaging was required because of said thermally induced distortions. Once such thermally induced distortions are minimised, direct beam paths through the said slab become effective as do their phase-locking capabilities.
This new art of stacked slab lasers allows for the generation of powerful laser beams, phase-locked together at the high power levels, to produce the largest possible laser beam energy from the smallest possible value of laser medium. Summary of the Invention
It is an object of the invention to provide a large volume of laser medium in the smallest possible volume of the invention by stacking laser slabs on top of each other so that the cooling channels between them is as small as possible and the opfcal excitation of said slabs is achieved via two, opposite unpolished side faces by coupling them to remotely sited optical power supplies via bund.es of optical fibres. The laser beam path, passing through the other pair of optically polished side surfaces, being defined by reflecting the said beam through each slab from top to bottom of the said slab stack using 45º turning mirrors which then form part of the optical resonator cavity which is terminated by a 100% laser beam reflector at one end and a partially transmitting laser beam reflector at the output end. Another object of the invention is to trap the excitation light within said slab stack by placing a 100% reflecting mirror at the pump wavelength above and below said stack.
It is an object of the invention, to minimise the heating of the slabs from heat generated by the diode pumps, to remotely site said laser diode pumps and couple their narrow band optical outputs to the said unpolished side faces of said slabs using bundles of optical fibres.
Another object of the invention is to incur minimum thermal distortion of said slabs so that the laser beams being generated can be propagated directly through the said slabs without themselves being distorted by passing through distorted laser media as was the case with prior art systems due to the excessive thermal heating of said slabs during the excitation process.
A further object of the invention is to generate a laser beam of elliptical cross-section within the resonator of the invention thus providing a good match for the elongated, rectangular cross-section of a typical slab laser medium.
Yet a further object of the invention is to generate a series of laser beams of circular cross-section within the invention so that said beams can provide a good match for the elongated, rectangular cross-section of a typical slab laser medium.
It is also an object of the invention to provide an oscillator- amplifier configuration, whereby a laser beam of a circular cross- section emitted by the oscillator is split by a beam splitter array with the multiple beam output of said beamsplitter array being directed into the said slab stacks where it is amplified. Another object of the invention is to provide for the phase- locking of the laser beam array output emitted by the stacked slab array, the said phase-locking resulting from the fact that the output laser beam array has a common origin in a master oscillator or by the fact that they are coupled to each other as they are
generated within the invention.
Brief Description of the Drawings
A better understanding of the invention may be obtained from the following considerations taken in conjunction with the
accompanying drawings which are not meant to limit the scope of the invention in any way.
Figure 1 shows a layout of the invention with the slabs stacked on top of each other and separated by a cooling fluid passage. The laser resonator cavity is a folded path cavity terminated by one fully reflective and one partially transmissive mirror at the laser wavelength positioned near to the respective input and output ends of the top and bottom slabs respectively. The laser resonator cavity is folded using 45° reflecting mirrors of up to 100%
reflectivity at the laser wavelength which direct the generated laser beam from slab to slab from the top to the bottom of the said stack of laser slabs.
Figure 2 shows the layout of the cross-section of the invention looking downwards from the top.
Figure 3 shows the configuration of the invention with its output consisting of a series of phase-locked laser beams of circular cross-section. Figure 4 shows the oscillator configuration of the invention with phase-locked output beams which may be in the form of a single laser beam of elliptical cross-section or an array of laser beams of circular cross-section emitted by each slab.
Figure 5 shows the oscillator amplifier configuration of the invention with phase-locked output beams.
Detailed Description of the Drawings
In Figure 1 , numeral 1 indicates the laser slab whilst numeral 2 indicates the anti-reflection coated end faces of said slabs 1. Numeral 3 indicates the partially transmitting output mirror of elliptical cross-section whilst numeral 4 indicates the beam turning mirrors of rectangular cross-section used to direct the laser beam being generated from slab to slab with the stack of said slab Numeral 5 indicates the second resonator mirror which is 100% reacting at the laser wavelength, and is of elliptical cross- section.
In Figure 1 , numeral 6 indicates the high power, high quality laser output beam of elliptical cross-section generated by the invention. Numeral 7 indicates the fluid used to cool said slab whilst numeral 8 indicates a reflector to reflect any escaping excitation light back into said stack of slab.
In Figure 2, numeral 9 indicates a bundle of optical fibres used to convey the narrow spectral bandwidth excitation light from a remotely sited optical power supply (not shown) into said slab via the largest side face which need not be optically polished for this purpose. ln Figure 3, numeral 10 indicates an array of phase-locked laser beams of circular cross-section being amplified in a slab of the invention.
In Figure 4, numeral 11 indicates phase-locked laser beams being amplified in the invention which now has two end mirrors indicated by numeral 12 and 13 respectively, numeral 12 being 100% reflective at the lasing wavelength whilst numeral 13 is partially transmissive to emit the phase-locked output beam indicated by numeral 14.
In Figure 5, numeral 15 indicates the input laser beam to be amplified by the invention after being split into an array of phase- locked laser beams by the adjustable beam splitter array indicated in part by numeral 16 with numeral 17 being the terminal 100% reflection mirror of the beam splitter array 16. Input beam 15 may be composed of a single laser beam of eliiptical cross-section or an array of laser beams of circular cross-section.
The array of phase-locked input beams in the invention is indicated by numeral 18. Numeral 19 indicates the amplified phase- locked output beam.
The invention has applications in the industrial, medical and defence fields demanding high laser beam powers.
When the high power laser output beam of the invention has an elliptical cross-section, it is a relatively simple process to optically convert such a beam into one of circular cross-section whenever the need arises.
It should be noted that since the thickness of the slab greatly exceeds the spacing between them used to flow the cooling fluid, it is possible to dispense with the turning mirrors 4 and phase-lock the outputs of the individual slab sectors when either suitable resonator mirrors are placed either side of said stack of slab or when they are fed with a series of coherent laser beams each of which is amplified in its own particular slab.

Claims

l claim,
1. A stacked slab laser oscillator system consisting of:
(a) Slabs of a laser medium stacked on top of each other, their largest, unpolished faces being positioned as close as possible to each other with sufficient space between each of the said slabs to allow for effective coolant flow across said large surfaces.
(b) Two side faces of said slabs, being on opposite ends of each of the said slab, being optically polished to allow undistorted passage of laser beam being generated through said slabs, said optically polished side faces of said slabs being positioned in the same manner for each slab in said stack.
(c) A laser resonator defined by a 100% reflecting mirror, a
partially transmitting mirror and a series of 100% mirrors orientated at 45° with respect to the plane through said slabs perpendicular to their optically polished side faces such that a laser beam is generated as it is reflected through said slabs in a continuous path between said 100% mirror and said partial transmitting output mirror.
(d) The optical excitation means whereby the excitation light enters each of said slabs via the remaining pair of side faces after being generated at a remote site and conveyed via bundles of optical fibres to said faces.
2. A system as claimed in Claim 1 where the generated laser beam is of elliptical cross-section providing a good match for the elongated rectangular cross-section of said slabs.
3. A system as claimed in Claim 1 where the generated laser beam is composed of a series of laser beams of circular cross- section, said series of beams providing a good match for the elongated rectangular cross-section of said slabs.
4. A system as claimed in Claim 3 where the laser beams are phase-locked.
5. A system with a stack of slabs as claimed in Claim 1 but with the mirrors replaced by one 100% mirror and one partially
transmitting output mirror, the phase-locked output beams from all slabs combining to form a single output beam.
6. A stacked slab array as claimed in Claim 1 acting as a laser amplifier, amplifying the output beam of a single laser oscillator after it has been split by a beam splitter array, such that each of the said split beam portions passes through a particular slab in said stacked slab amplifier, the output beam array being phase- locked.
PCT/AU1990/000511 1989-10-25 1990-10-25 Phase-locked, fibre bundle excited, stacked slabs, laser system WO1991006994A1 (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
AUPJ703389 1989-10-25
AUPJ7033 1989-10-25

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WO1998006156A1 (en) * 1996-08-07 1998-02-12 Lumonics Inc. Multiple element, folded beam laser
US5867519A (en) * 1996-08-07 1999-02-02 Lumonics Inc. Multiple element, folded beam laser
US5867518A (en) * 1996-08-07 1999-02-02 Lumonics Inc. Multiple element laser pumping chamber
DE19811211A1 (en) * 1998-03-10 1999-09-16 Max Born Inst Fuer Nichtlinear Multipath waveguide solid state laser or amplifier structure
EP1160940A1 (en) * 2000-05-30 2001-12-05 TRW Inc. Optical amplifier comprising an end pumped zig-zag slab gain medium
EP1204182A3 (en) * 2000-11-02 2005-01-05 Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha Semiconductor laser pumped solid state laser

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WO1998006156A1 (en) * 1996-08-07 1998-02-12 Lumonics Inc. Multiple element, folded beam laser
US5867519A (en) * 1996-08-07 1999-02-02 Lumonics Inc. Multiple element, folded beam laser
US5867518A (en) * 1996-08-07 1999-02-02 Lumonics Inc. Multiple element laser pumping chamber
EP0986150A1 (en) * 1996-08-07 2000-03-15 Lumonics Inc. Multiple element, folded beam laser
DE19811211A1 (en) * 1998-03-10 1999-09-16 Max Born Inst Fuer Nichtlinear Multipath waveguide solid state laser or amplifier structure
DE19811211B4 (en) * 1998-03-10 2007-08-16 Forschungsverbund Berlin E.V. Multipath Waveguide Solid State Laser or Amplifier Array
EP1160940A1 (en) * 2000-05-30 2001-12-05 TRW Inc. Optical amplifier comprising an end pumped zig-zag slab gain medium
EP1646117A2 (en) * 2000-05-30 2006-04-12 Northrop Grumman Corporation Optical amplifier comprising an end pumped zig-zag slab gain medium
EP1646117A3 (en) * 2000-05-30 2006-04-26 Northrop Grumman Corporation Optical amplifier comprising an end pumped zig-zag slab gain medium
EP1204182A3 (en) * 2000-11-02 2005-01-05 Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha Semiconductor laser pumped solid state laser
US6898230B2 (en) 2000-11-02 2005-05-24 Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha Solid state laser device and solid state laser device system

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