Multipulse operation of a high average power, good beam quality zig-zag dye laser

Author

Mandl, Alexander ; Klimek, Daniel E.

Author_Institution

Textron Defense Syst., Everett, MA, USA

Volume

32

Issue

3

fYear

1996

fDate

3/1/1996 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

378

Lastpage

382

Abstract

A laser pumped zig-zag dye laser operating at 568 nm with a pulse length ~2 μs has been sealed to high power using a MOPA configuration. Pulse energies in excess of 7 J with beam quality <2 XDL have been achieved under repetitively pulsed, 10 Hz operation. RMS jitter was measured as 0.12 of a 1 XDL spot. The device has operated with over 70 W output for runs up to 5 s. Substantially longer run times and output powers are possible. This device represents an advance in dye laser capabilities. Improvement in pointing accuracy of better than an order of magnitude have been demonstrated. In addition, an improvement in beam quality by about an order of magnitude has been achieved compared to other dye lasers operating in this power range

Keywords

dye lasers; jitter; laser beams; 10 Hz; 2 mus; 5 s; 568 nm; 7 J; 70 W; MOPA configuration; RMS jitter; beam quality; good beam quality zig-zag dye laser; high average power; high power; laser pumped zig-zag dye laser; master oscillator power amplifier mode; multipulse operation; output powers; pointing accuracy; pulse energies; pulse length; repetitively pulsed 10 Hz operation; run times; Laser beams; Laser excitation; Laser feedback; Optical feedback; Optical pulses; Optical pumping; Optical resonators; Power lasers; Pump lasers; Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.485386

Filename

485386