Amplified spontaneous emission-application to Nd:YAG lasers

Author

Barnes, Norman P. ; Walsh, Brian M.

Author_Institution

NASA Langley Res. Center, Hampton, VA, USA

Volume

35

Issue

1

fYear

1999

fDate

1/1/1999 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

101

Lastpage

109

Abstract

Amplified spontaneous emission can seriously degrade the Q-switched performance of a strong four-level transition such as the 1.064 μm Nd:YAG transition or can even prevent oscillation on a weaker quasi-four-level transition such as the 0.946-μm Nd:YAG transition. To characterize, and thus be able to mitigate, amplified spontaneous emission, a closed-form model is developed. By employing a closed-form solution, the differential equations describing both the evolution and decay of the upper laser manifold population density can be solved exactly. An advantage of this model is the separation of the spectral and spatial portions of amplified spontaneous emission. Gain measurements, as a function of time and pump energy, are compared with the model and good agreement is found. With these principles in mind, a flashlamp-pumped Nd:YAG laser was designed to operate at 0.936 μm. At room temperature, a threshold of 12 J and a slope efficiency of 0.009 was achieved

Keywords

Q-switching; flash lamps; infrared sources; laser theory; laser transitions; neodymium; optical pumping; solid lasers; superradiance; 0.946 mum; 1.064 mum; 12 J; Nd:YAG lasers; Nd:YAG transition; Q-switched performance; YAG:Nd; YAl5O12:Nd; amplified spontaneous emission; closed-form model; closed-form solution; differential equations; flashlamp-pumped Nd:YAG laser; laser gain measurements; oscillation; pump energy; room temperature; slope efficiency; spatial portions; strong four-level laser transition; upper laser manifold population density; weaker quasi-four-level transition; Closed-form solution; Degradation; Differential equations; Gain measurement; Laser modes; Laser transitions; Optical design; Pump lasers; Spontaneous emission; Temperature;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.737626

Filename

737626