Microchannel cooled edge cladding to establish an adiabatic boundary condition in a slab laser

In a solid-state slab laser of the type having a crystal slab body of laser medium, said slab laser medium having an edge cladding of the type wherein a layer of absorber material, having a refractive index matched to the refractive index of the laser medium, is diffusion bonded to the top surface and bottom surface of said crystal slab body of laser medium to suppress amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) and parasitic oscillations within the laser medium, the improvement being a cooling system added to said edge cladding to eliminate beam distortions at the top and the bottom of the slab laser as the laser heats up comprising:

• (a) a first heat sink diffusion bonded to the top surface of layer of absorber material, said first heat sink having cooling channels to allow a cooling liquid to flow through said cooling channels to create an isothermal condition at the interface between the laser medium and the top edge cladding;
• and
• (b) a second heat sink diffusion bonded to the surface of said bottom edge cladding opposite the surface of the bottom edge cladding that is diffusion bonded to said laser medium, said second heat sink having cooling channels to allow a cooling liquid to flow through said cooling channels to create an isothermal condition at the interface between the laser medium and the bottom edge cladding.