Abstract
The rotating hollow cylinder glass laser is one of the approaches for the generation of high average output powers scaling to kilowatt levels from solid-state laser materials. An analytical solution of the heat conduction equation is presented for a thin wall, infinitely long glass medium, with boundary conditions given by Newton's law of cooling. The theoretical result is applied to predict thermal effects of this geometry which ultimately limit the laser performance, and the design of such a laser. A flashlamp pumped rotating Nd-doped phosphate glass hollow cylinder laser has been demonstrated. An average power output of 300 W has been achieved at 3.8% slope efficiency and 2.6% overall efficiency. Our investigation shows that the development of a kilowatt average power rotating cylinder laser is feasible.
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