Power electronics for pulsed Nd:YAG laser systems

The Nd:YAG laser has become the laser of choice for many industrial applications such as welding, drilling, cutting, and marking materials, especially metals. Its key advantages lie in the fact that it\´s solid state, a relatively easy material to deal with (good thermal, mechanical and optical properties), has an appropriate fundamental lasing wavelength, and is reasonably cost competitive. The material is optically excited ("pumped") using a flash-lamp (pulsed applications) or an arc-lamp (continuous use) which is closely coupled optically to the Nd:YAG rod. The paper discusses the discharge circuits for driving flashlamps, and the partial energy discharge circuit. A variable pule energy/pulse length Ruby laser is also discussed