Demonstration of transversely pumped Ar[formula omitted] laser with continuous-wave diode stack and repetitively pulsed discharge

Abstract

As a potential high-energy laser, optically pumped metastable rare gas laser (OPRGL) has drawn attention worldwide. In this article, a stack-pumped metastable argon laser was demonstrated at 800 mbar of Ar/He mixture. The metastable particles were produced by repetitively pulsed discharge in the gas mixture, and laser oscillation was realized in a planar-concave cavity with the gain medium longitudinally or transversely pumped by the pumping source of a diode-stack with an external cavity of gratings. Maximum averaged power of 750 mW was obtained with transverse pumping in a repetition rate of 30 kHz of pulsed discharge. Compared to longitudinal pumped OPRGLs, extraction ability and pumping uniformity would be improved at transverse pumping configuration. And it is found that the average output power similar to that of longitudinal pumping can be achieved at a shorter gain length with transverse pumping, which is linearly proportional to the discharge repetition rate. This demonstration implies that power scaling of OPRGL is feasible by combining diode-stacks and multi-pass transverse pumping.