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AssigneeQinetiq Limited
InventorsDavid James Fulker, Mark Ralph Venner, Andrew James Finlayson, Anthony David Case
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This invention relates to the field of lasers and in particular to the pump sources used in lasers. Many existing lasers use linear flashlamps in order to create population inversion in the gain medium of the laser. Such pump sources suffer from a number of drawbacks particularly when pumping dye lasers including explosive damage, long optical pulse length and inappropriate spectral emission. This invention provides a pump source for a laser which exploits the surface discharge phenomenon. A dielectric material (1) which is in contract with a gas (9) has electrical energy discharged across its surface in order to provide an electromagnetic emission which is then used to pump the gain medium. By varying the dielectric material or the cover gas used (amongst other variables) the surface emission can be used to pump the laser gain medium.
A pump source for a laser comprising a slab of dielectric material said slab having at least part of its surface exposed, containment means for retaining a gas in contact with said exposed surface said containment means being capable of being charged with a suitable gas and an energy supply means arranged such that in operation of the source said supply means is capable of supplying energy across said exposed surface of the substrate thereby initiating a surface discharge wherein the impedance of the energy supply means is substantially matched to the impedance of the surface discharge and the energy supply means comprises stripline electrodes connected to the substrate such that, in use, they are substantially at right angles to the surface discharge propagation direction.
A pump source as claimed in any of the preceding claims wherein the energy supply means is operably connected to the dielectric material by means of profiled electrodes.
A pump source as claimed in any of the preceding claims wherein the dielectric material is a polymer, ceramic or glass material.
A pump source as claimed in any of the preceding claims wherein the dielectric material thickness is in the range 0.5-6 millimetres
A pump source as claimed in any of the preceding claims wherein the dielectric material is doped.
A method of pumping the gain medium of a laser comprising the steps of
A pump source for a laser comprising a slab of dielectric material said slab having at least part of its surface exposed, containment means for retaining a gas in contact with said exposed surge said containment means being capable of being charged with a suitable gas and an energy supply means arranged such that in operation of the source said supply means is capable of supplying energy across said exposed surface of the substrate thereby initiating a surface discharge wherein the impedance of the energy supply means is substantially matched to the impedance of the surface discharge and the slab of dielectric material is doped with a laser dye such that it is capable in use of acting as a laser gain material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.