Lasers

Power neodymium-glass amplifier of a repetitively pulsed laser

A. V. Vinogradov, V. E. Gaganov, S. G. Garanin, N. V. Zhidkov, V. A. Krotov, S. P. Martynenko, E. V. Pozdnyakov, I. I. Solomatin

Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Russian Federal Nuclear Center — All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics", Sarov

Abstract: A neodymium-glass diode-pumped amplifier with a zigzag laser beam propagation through the active medium was elaborated; the amplifier is intended for operation in a repetitively pulsed laser. An amplifier unit with an aperture of 20 × 25 mm and a ≈40-cm long active medium was put to a test. The energy of pump radiation amounts to 140 J at a wavelength of 806 nm for a pump duration of 550 μs. The energy parameters of the amplifier were experimentally determined: the small-signal gain per pass ≈3.2, the linear gain ≈0.031 cm^-1 with a nonuniformity of its distribution over the aperture within 15 %, the stored energy of 0.16 — 0.21 J cm^-3. The wavefront distortions in the zigzag laser-beam propagation through the active element of the amplifier did not exceed 0.4λ (λ = 0.63 μm is the probing radiation wavelength).

PACS: 42.55.Rz, 42.55.Xi, 42.60.By, 42.60.Lh

Received: 29.06.2011

 English version: Quantum Electronics, 2011, 41:11, 1037–1039

Bibliographic databases:

• 
• 
• 
•