Abstract
In high power lasers, the maximum output power scales proportionally with the length of the active medium. In general, there is an upper bound for the output power that can be attained with a medium of a certain length. For solid state lasers this limit is caused by the pump induced thermal heat P H which has to stay below the fracture limit to avoid damage to the active material. For a laser rod the maximum output power P out per length is given by:
where η extr is the extraction efficiency, χ is the thermal load parameter, and PHmax is the maximally allowed thermal heat (see Table 13.1 for typical values). In gas lasers the limitation of the output power per tube length is also a result of the heat deposition in the gas. For sealed-off CO2 lasers in which the gas is not constantly removed, the maximum output power is on the order of 100W/m for tube lasers. Better heat removal can be achieved by flowing the gas through the electrical discharge region. In fast flow CO2 lasers, maximum output powers per length on the order of 2,000W/m can be realized. Unfortunately, using a longer active medium to increase the output power is often not feasible due to space requirements, limitations on the length (solid state laser rods, for instance, are usually not grown longer than 200mm), or technical difficulties in providing efficient heat removal.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
V.R. Kushnir, A.N. Nemkow, N.V. Shkunov, Influence of the resonator geometry on the output power of a laser with several active elements, Sov. J. Quantum Electron. 5, 713, 1975
K.P. Driedger, R. Iffländer, H. Weber, Muhirod resonators for high power solid state lasers with improved beam quality, IEE.E. J. Quantum Electron. 24, 665, 1988
J.M. Eggleston, Periodic resonators for average-power scaling of stable-resonator solid-state lasers, IEEE J. Quantum Electr. 24, 1821, 1989
N. Hodgson, G. Bostanjoglo, H. Weber, Multirod unstable resonators for high power solid state lasers, Appl. Opt. 32, 5902, 1993
W. Rath, T. Northemann, Industrial fast axial flow CO2 laser series from 10 kW to 20 kW, Proceedings of the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers vol. 2206, High power gas and solid state lasers, 185, 1994
V.V. Vasil’tsov, V.V. Zelenov, A.A. Lisin, D. Yu. Filimonov, Concept of technological high-power multichannel waveguide diffusion-cooled CO2 lasers with electrodeless sound-frequency AC discharge, vol. 2206, High power gas and solid state lasers, 206, 1994
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1997 Springer-Verlag London
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hodgson, N., Weber, H. (1997). Resonators with Several Active Media. In: Optical Resonators. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-3595-1_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-3595-1_14
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-3597-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-3595-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive