Resonator design and beam quality measurement in Yb：YAG slab lasers

XUE Hai-zhong; LU Fu-yuan; XUE Mei; LIU Qiang; GUO Zhen; ZHANG Hai-tao; GONG Ma-li

To improve the beam quality of a diode-pumped Yb:YAG/YAG composite slab laser,the thermal lens effect inside the slab was analyzed.The focal lengths of the thermal lens both in thickness and width directions inside the slab were calculated.Its influenceon the resonator mode was also analyzed.A hybrid resonator was designed and the beam quality of its laser output was considered.A continuous wave kilowatts Yb:YAG/YAG composite slab laser pumped by laser diode was presented,in which the corner-pumped scheme was used.Its beam quality was measured with CCD camera.The M2 factors at width and thickness direction were better than 20 and 5 respectively,at an output power of 500W.The results show that the hybrid resonator is suitable for slab laser to obtain a good beam quality output laser.

Corresponding author: GUO Zhen, zhguo@mail.xidian.edu.cn;

1. School of Technical Physics, Xidian University, Xi'an 710071, China;

2. State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Center for Photonics and Electronics, Department of Precision Instruments, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China;

3. Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China

Received Date: 2006-03-29

Accepted Date: 2006-06-06

Available Online: 2006-11-25

Abstract: To improve the beam quality of a diode-pumped Yb:YAG/YAG composite slab laser,the thermal lens effect inside the slab was analyzed.The focal lengths of the thermal lens both in thickness and width directions inside the slab were calculated.Its influenceon the resonator mode was also analyzed.A hybrid resonator was designed and the beam quality of its laser output was considered.A continuous wave kilowatts Yb:YAG/YAG composite slab laser pumped by laser diode was presented,in which the corner-pumped scheme was used.Its beam quality was measured with CCD camera.The M2 factors at width and thickness direction were better than 20 and 5 respectively,at an output power of 500W.The results show that the hybrid resonator is suitable for slab laser to obtain a good beam quality output laser.

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Reference (10)

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Resonator design and beam quality measurement in Yb：YAG slab lasers

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References

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