Highly efficient and high-quality beam generation of a diode-stacks-pumped Nd:YAG rod laser

Summary form only given. Because of long lifetime of diode bars, good quality of laser beams, and high efficiency of overall systems, high-power diode-pumped solid-state lasers could promise practical industrial tools for a variety of cutting, drilling and welding applications. Over the past several years, cost reduction and power scaling of diode bars accelerated the replacement conventional lamp pumped systems with diode-pumped solid-state lasers. Recent progress in diode-stack technology offers significant, power enhancement of diode-pumped solid-state lasers. However, both beam quality and electrical efficiency of high-power diode-pumped systems are several times lower than those of industrial CO/sub 2/ lasers resulting in specific applications. In this paper, we describe a highly efficient Nd:YAG rod laser with a novel-side-pumping design using microlens free diode-stacks. We also report high-brightness operation by introducing bifocusing compensation resonator.