Abstract

Diode pumped Nd:YAG solid state lasers offer the possibility of generating high intensity fundamental mode radiation and are of great interest at present since the possibility of achieving efficiencies close to the quantum limit has been demonstrated.¹ We designed a scalable configuration consisting of individually longitudinally pumped disks as shown in Fig. 1. The system emitted 530-mW TEM₀₀ linearly polarized at 1.06 µm with an efficiency of 18%. The arrangement provides several advantages in view of the aimed high power levels. Longitudinal pumping gives a good mode matching of pump beam and laser beam and maintains high conversion efficiencies. A well defined heat removal from each disk is possible. The expected thermally induced beam distortion can be compensated at any arbitrarily chosen position within the resonator. Parasitic mode oscillation is almost completely suppressed.

© 1990 Optical Society of America