Minimizing Heat Generation in Solid-State Lasers

Author

Bowman, Steven R. ; O´Connor, Shawn P. ; Biswal, Subrat ; Condon, Nicholas J. ; Rosenberg, Armand

Author_Institution

Adv. Laser Concepts, Naval Res. Lab., Washington, DC, USA

Volume

46

Issue

7

fYear

2010

fDate

7/1/2010 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1076

Lastpage

1085

Abstract

Novel high-power ytterbium YAG lasers are described. These lasers incorporate the principle of anti-Stokes fluorescence cooling to reduce or eliminate detrimental heating. Lasers with net heating and net cooling are demonstrated. By balancing the spontaneous and stimulated emission, we have reduced the net thermal loading to below 0.01% of the laser´s average output power. Design, testing, and analysis are reported for lasers up to 500 W average power and pulsed operation up to 30 s. Issues and limitations of this approach are discussed.

Keywords

heat treatment; laser cavity resonators; optical design techniques; optical pumping; solid lasers; ytterbium; yttrium compounds; YAG:Yb; antiStokes fluorescence cooling; average output power; end-pumped resonators; heat generation minimization; high-power ytterbium YAG lasers; laser design; net cooling; net heating; net thermal loading; solid-state lasers; stimulated emission; Cooling; Fluorescence; Heating; Optical design; Power generation; Power lasers; Solid lasers; Stimulated emission; Thermal loading; Ytterbium; Laser thermal factors; solid lasers; ytterbium;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JQE.2010.2043415

Filename

5440021