An 8.2 J phase-conjugate solid-state laser coherently combining eight parallel amplifiers

• Published in: IEEE journal of quantum electronics 1994-11, Vol.30 (11), p.2617-2627
• Main Authors: Sumida, D.S., Jones, D.C., Rockwell, D.A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Crystals; Doped-insulator lasers and other solid state lasers; Exact sciences and technology; Frequency; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); Laser optical systems: design and operation; Lasers; Optical amplifiers; Optical diffraction; Optical harmonic generation; Optical pulses; Optics; Physics; Pulse amplifiers; Resonators, cavities, amplifiers, arrays, and rings; Semiconductor optical amplifiers; Solid lasers; Stimulated emission
• ISSN: 0018-9197; 1558-1713
• DOI: 10.1109/3.333716

We describe a phase-conjugate master oscillator-power amplifier configuration in which as many as eight parallel flashlamp-pumped Cr:Nd:GSGG amplifiers and four parallel CD*A frequency doubling crystals were coherently combined. Operating at a pulse repetition frequency of 1.25 Hz, we demonstrated an output energy of 8.2 J at 1 /spl mu/m and 4.4 J at 530 nm for a 54% frequency-doubling efficiency. This effort represents the highest reported output energy achieved using coherent coupling via phase conjugation. In subsequent experiments at a pulse repetition frequency of 5 Hz, we produced /spl sim/22 W of 1.06 /spl mu/m average power with a beam quality that was /spl sim/2.5 times diffraction-limited. The observed far-field intensity profile indicates that we achieved effective and consistent compensation of optical-path length differences among the multiple parallel amplifiers and frequency-doubling crystals.< >