Csir

Ihar Anatolievich Litvin

Gary Rees King

Sandile Ngcobo

Liesl Burger

A laser apparatus has a gain medium which has opposite ends, wherein the laser apparatus includes at least two independently controllable excitation sources, each one of the excitation sources being operable to produce an input beam to excite or pump the gain medium. Beam splitting arrangements are associated with the excitation sources are configured to split the input beam of its associated excitation source into at least two sub-beams. Beam guiding arrangements are associated with the excitation sources and are configured to direct a path of at least one of the split sub-beams from its associated excitation source, whereby each excitation source, its associated beam splitting arrangement, and beam guiding arrangement are arranged such that the sub-beams are respectively directed inwardly towards the gain medium at opposite ends.

Laser apparatus and method having plural excitation sources with associated beam splitting arrangements for adaptive control

A controllable laser amplifier apparatus includes a gain medium and a seed laser emitter configured to generate a seed laser beam, the seed laser emitter directed toward the gain medium. The apparatus has at least two pump laser emitters configured to generate respective pump laser beams, wherein the pump laser emitters are adjustable such that respective intensities of the pump laser beams are adjustable relative to one another and/or relative to the seed laser pump, wherein the pump laser emitters are arranged such that at least one of the pump laser beams is laterally offset relative to the seed laser beam, and wherein the pump laser beams are configured to effect a gain profile in the gain medium. An output laser beam from the gain medium is a function of at least the gain profile and the seed laser beam.

Controllable laser amplifier apparatus and method

Laser apparatus includes an output coupler, a gain medium for generating laser light, a rear optical element, and an input coupler. The input coupler is arranged to direct a pump beam to the gain medium and to define an optical path between the output coupler and the rear optical element. The rear optical element is a spatial light modulator arranged to act as an intra-cavity digital holographic mirror which can be digitally addressed. The spatial light modulator displays selectively a gray-scale image of a hologram thereby to phase-modulate laser light in the cavity, thus making it possible to generate an output laser beam having a desired characteristic. The apparatus includes a computer arranged to generate at least one hologram corresponding to a desired output beam characteristic, and a driver circuit responsive to an output from the computer to generate a corresponding gray-scale image of the hologram on the spatial light modulator.

Method of operating a laser and laser apparatus using intra-cavity digital holograms

The invention relates to an optical resonator, laser apparatus and a method of generating a laser beam inside an optical resonator. The optical resonator () includes an optical cavity () and an optical element () at either end thereof, operable to sustain a light beam () therein, characterized in that each optical element () is a phase-only optical element operable to alter a mode of the beam () as it propagates along the length of the optical resonator (), such that in use the beam () at one end of the optical resonator () has a Gaussian profile while the beam () at the other end of the optical resonator () has a non-Gaussian profile.

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Pretoria, South Africa

Ihar Anatolievich Litvin