Grundlagen fuer diodengepumpte Nd-dotierte Festkoerperlaser hoher Leistung Untersuchungen der physikalisch-technischen Grundlagen von Festkoerperlasern, die mit kontinuierlich arbeitenden Diodenlasern transversal angeregt werden. Abschlussbericht

At the beginning of these investigations diode-pumped solid-state lasers only operated in the output power range of less than 10W cw. The goal of this project was the development and the characterization of continuous-wave diode-laser side-pumped Nd:YAG laser in the output power range between 100 and 300W. The development of diode-pumped high power Nd:YAG lasers in rod and slab geometry required a detailed description of thermal and thermo-optic effects as well as specially designed resonators. For the efficient and reliable performance of the diode-pumped lasers, the assembly of pump units with high pump power densities and packaging densities was necessary. A diode-pumped rod laser in a transverse pump geometry generated a maximum multimode output power of 250W cw at a pump power of approximately 1000W cw. The optical slope efficiency was 29%, the optical to optical efficiency 25%. In fundamental mode operation, an output power of 36W was realized, with an optical to optical efficiency of 10%. A slab laser with pump face cooling generated a maximum output power of 41W cw at a pump power of 200W cw. By injection locking the diode-pumped high power rod laser to a monolithic miniature ring laser, the so far highest reported single-frequency output power of 18W cw was obtained. Due to the excellent beam quality and high output powers, diode-pumped solid-state lasers are attractive light sources for material processing. (orig.)Available from TIB Hannover: F94B1165+a / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEBundesministerium fuer Forschung und Technologie (BMFT), Bonn (Germany)DEGerman