High-power, high-fracture-strength, eye-safe Er:glass laser

Michael M. Tilleman; Steven M. Jackel; Inon Moshe

doi:10.1117/1.601775

1 September 1998 High-power, high-fracture-strength, eye-safe Er:glass laser

Michael M. Tilleman, Steven M. Jackel, Inon Moshe

Optical Engineering, Vol. 37, Issue 9, (September 1998). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.601775

We develop a high-power Er:strengthened-glass laser emitting at the eye-safe 1.535 mm wavelength. To maximize the output parameters of an Er:glass laser, whose power supply must also be used with Nd:YAG, a two-lamp laser head with parallel power forming networks (PFNs) that could be fired with an internal delay is used. The system operates at a slope efficiency of 0.45%, yielding a maximum pulse energy of 330 mJ. Thermal effects are measured, indicating strong thermal lensing, of 16 diopter/kW and mild birefringence induced depolarization of 5% at 200 W electrical power. From this data we determine the radial-tangential average and birefringence elasto-optical coefficients, Cr ,Ø=0.075 ± 0.002 and CB=0.0094, respectively. A TEM00 beam is achieved for a hemispherical resonator configuration. Based on the measurements, a design is presented for improved high-power TEM00 performance using principles based on dynamic compensation of thermal focusing and birefringence correction using a reentrant resonator.

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Michael M. Tilleman, Steven M. Jackel, and Inon Moshe "High-power, high-fracture-strength, eye-safe Er:glass laser," Optical Engineering 37(9), (1 September 1998). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.601775

Published: 1 September 1998

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