Fiber coupled diode pumped moving solid state laser
AssigneeThe Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Jr. University
InventorsSantanu Basu, Robert L. Byer
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A moving solid state laser gain structure is optically pumped by optical pumping radiation derived from a remote bank of diodes, preferably laser diodes. The pumping radiation is guided and concentrated from the bank to the laser gain structure over a bundle of fiber optic waveguides. In some embodiments, the laser gain structure is a slab of Nd:Glass or Nd:YAG. In some embodiments, the lasant beam is internally reflected within the slab over a zig-zag path. In one embodiment, the lasant slab is a rotating and translating disk with the pumping radiation being applied collinearly of the beam of lasant radiation. In another embodiment, the lasant slab is made up of a bundle of fiber optic waveguides.
Claims17
In a method for generating an output beam of coherent lasant radiation, the steps of:
- coupling the output of a plurality of individual diode sources which form optical pumping radiation, into a fiber optic waveguide structure;
- guiding and concentrating said output through the fiber optic waveguide structure to and thence into a selectively pumped region of a structure of laser gain material for illuminating and for optically pumping of the selected region of the laser gain material, said region being only a part of said structure;
- stimulating emission of coherent lasant radiation from the illuminated and selectively optically pumped region of said laser gain material to produce an output beam of coherent lasant radiation;
- and
- imparting cyclical relative motion to said structure relative to said region to cyclically move said selectively pumped region relative to the remainder of said gain material so as to distribute the heat generated in said laser gain material by said optical pumping radiation throughout said lasant material to inhibit thermally induced birefringence and gain non-uniformity effects on said output beam.
In a laser:
- a plurality of individual diode sources of optical pumping radiation forming optical pumping means;
- optic waveguide means optically coupled to said diode sources for guiding and concentrating the optical pumping radiation emanating from said plurality of diode sources;
- laser gain means including a structure of laser gain material disposed for receiving the guided and concentrated optical pumping radiation from said optic waveguide means for illuminating and optically pumping a region of said structure of laser gain material selected to be less than all of said structure for producing a lasant beam of stimulated emission of coherent radiation emanating from said optically pumped selected region of said laser gain material;
- and
- driver means for imparting cyclical relative motion between said pumped region of said laser gain material and the remainder of said laser gain material so as to distribute the heat generated in said laser gain material by said optical pumping radiation throughout said laser gain material to inhibit thermally induced birefringence and gain non-uniformity effects on said lasant beam of coherent radiation.
In a method for generating an output beam of coherent lasant radiation, the steps of:
- producing optical pumping radiation;
- guiding said pumping radiation to and thence into a selective region of a structure of laser gain material, said region being only a part of said structure;
- stimulating emission of coherent lasant radiation from said region;
- and
- imparting both translational and rotational relative motion to said structure relative to said region to cyclically move said selectively pumped region relative to the remainder of said gain material so as to distribute the heat generated in said laser gain material by said optical pumping radiation throughout said lasant material to inhibit thermally induced birefringence and gain non-uniformity effects on said output beam.
In a method for generating an output beam of coherent lasant radiation, the steps of:
- producing optical pumping radiation;
- coupling optical pumping radiation into a broad face of a selective region of a structure of laser gain material, said region being only a part of said structure, to stimulate emission of lasant radiation therein along a beam path having multiple intersections with said broad face;
- dividing said optical pumping radiation into spatially separated groups and directing the output of each group into said structure at a respective intersection of said beam with said broad face;
- and
- imparting both translational and rotational relative motion to said structure relative to said region to cyclically move said selectively pumped region relative to the remainder of said gain material so as to distribute the heat generated in said laser gain material by said optical pumping radiation throughout said lasant material to inhibit thermally induced birefringence and gain non-uniformity effects on said output beam.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.