Concept of the ideal amplifier and its application for creating cascade amplifier systems

Abstract

Because of the development of laser technologies, in particularly of the method of laser isotope separation, the necessity to develop kilowatt-class narrow-band tunable laser systems has increased. Organic dyes solutions are the unique active medium that allows to realize laser systems with such characteristics. However the dye solution is a rather complex medium and a careful optimization of the laser system parameters is required to reach a high efficiency. A large number of publications concerning the powerful dye laser systems is devoted to the research of a single amplifier stage. In the present paper the cascade of the dye laser amplifiers is considered as a unit. On the basis of a simplified model of the amplifier stage, the equations describing the whole laser system were solved analytically. Such approach has allowed, on the basic parameters of the laser system, (input and output power, characteristic of active medium) to determine optical parameters of each amplifier stage in the cascade (number and parameters of stages, pump power distribution between stages). On the basis of the offered model the optimization of the 1 kW dye laser system, pumped by copper vapor laser, was carried out. Analytical estimations were compared with the results of a rigorous numerical simulation of the system.