Abstract
Using phaseconjugating mirrors (PCMs) the beam quality of solid state lasers can be improved by compensating the thermal lens of the rods at high average powers. Oscillators with one PCM as a highly reflecting mirror and double-pass amplifiers with PCMs have been investigated. PCMs are realized by stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS). Nd:YAG and Nd,Cr:GSGG oscillators have been built with pulse repetition rates up to 45 Hz. Stable TEM00-mode operation has been obtained. Average output powers of 10 watts for 15 ns Q-switched pulses of a Nd:YAG laser and 7 watts for Nd,Cr:GSGG have been achieved. In a double pass Nd:YAG amplifier the thermal lens was compensated leading to a nearly diffraction limited beam with a maximum output power of 40 watts.© (1993) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Published Version
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