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US 9,312,657 B1Granted
Solid-state laser with prismatic gain-element
AssigneeCoherent LaserSystems GmbH & Co. KG
InventorsRüdiger Von Elm, Wolf Seelert
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A Q-switched solid-state laser has a neodymium-doped yttrium vanadate single-crystal gain-element in the form of a prism. The prism incorporates the functions of a gain-element, a polarizer, a resonator end-mirror and an output coupler.
Claims18
Laser apparatus, comprising:
- a gain-element in the form of a rare-earth-doped, prismatic, birefringent crystal having first, second, third faces parallel to the c-axis of the crystal and at an angle to each other, the gain-element having polarization-dependent gain strongest in the c-axis direction;
- a source of pump-radiation for energizing the gain-element, thereby causing the gain-element to emit laser-radiation at the fundamental wavelength and plane-polarized in the c-axis direction of the gain-element;
- a laser-resonator for the c-axis polarized fundamental-wavelength radiation, the resonator formed between a first end-mirror, and one of (1) a coating on the third face of the prism highly reflective at the fundamental emission wavelength of the crystal, and (2) a second end-mirror spaced apart from the third face of the prism;
- a polarization-rotator located in the resonator and arranged to selectively rotate the polarization of radiation making a double-pass therethrough;
- and
- wherein when the polarization is rotated by the polarization-rotator at a non-orthogonal angle to the c-axis direction, the radiation is resolved into a c-axis polarized component and an a-axis polarized component polarized perpendicular to the c-axis direction, with the c-axis polarized radiation circulating in the laser-resonator and the a-axis component of the radiation being transmitted through the second face of the gain-element as output radiation wherein the polarization-resolved radiation is non-normally incident on the first face of the prism and the c-axis polarized component and the a-axis polarized component follow separate paths in the crystal at an angle to each other.
3 more elements
A Q-switched laser comprising:
- a laser resonator defined by first and second end mirrors;
- a birefringent gain medium located within the resonator formed in the shape of a prism having three sides;
- a source of optical radiation for exciting the gain medium to generate optical radiation having a polarization state;
- and
- a polarization rotator located within the resonator, said rotator being operable between a first state where the polarization state of the radiation is rotated a first amount and a second state wherein the polarization state of the radiation is rotated a second amount, wherein when said rotator is operating in the first state, gain builds up in the laser resonator and when the rotator is operated in the second state, a laser pulse is generated that exits one of the sides of the gain medium and wherein the gain medium is arranged such that when the rotator is in the first state, the majority of the generated radiation exits said one side of the gain medium resulting in a loss that prevents lasing and wherein when the rotator is in the second state, the majority of the radiation is totally internally reflected at said one side of the gain medium and the remainder of the radiation exits said one side as a laser pulse.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.