Trw Limited

Jacqueline G Berg

Hagop Injeyan

Gerald W Holleman

James M Zamel

Charles W Clendening, Jr

Leonard J Marabella

The present invention provides a solid state laser gain medium 28 comprising: (a) a gain layer 30 having pump regions 32 and first and second contact regions 34 and 36, respectively; (b) a first transparent layer 38 optically connected to the first contact region 34 of the gain layer 30 by diffusion bonding; and (c) a second transparent layer 40 optically connected to the second contact region 36 of the gain layer 30 by diffusion bonding. The transparent layers 38 and 40 are transparent to the lasing wavelength of the gain medium 28. The present invention also provides an apparatus for amplifying laser light, comprising: (a) a solid state, slab geometry gain medium 44 having lateral pump faces 46 and a principal radiation absorption axis C; and (b) an excitation mechanism 48 located along the pump faces 46 of the gain medium 44 for generating polarized light along a polarization axis 52 wherein the polarization axis 52 is parallel with the principal absorption axis C of the gain medium 44 to provide increased radiation absorption. The present invention also provides a cooling system 58 for a solid state gain medium 60 generating laser output laser emission at a wavelength from about 2 .mu.m to about 3 .mu.m. The cooling system 58 including a coolant material such as D2O for reducing absorption of laser emissions by the coolant at wavelengths from about 2 .mu.m to about 3 .mu.m.

Three-level laser system

A technique for operating a diode pumped solid state laser in a continuous-wave (cw) mode using diodes blocks (12) that are individually operated in a pulsed mode. For some high power laser applications, it is desirable to provide for operation in pulsed and cw modes, but pump diodes are typically designed for efficient operation in only one of these modes. The invention includes a controller (20) that pulses the individual diode blocks (12) on and off, but not necessarily in unison. For a pulsed mode of operation, the diodes (12) in an array are pulsed either at the same time, or sub-arrays are pulsed in a temporally interleaved manner for a higher effective pulse repetition rate. For the cw mode of operation, the diodes (12) are pulsed sequentially in sub-arrays (A-E), such that at least one sub-array is always energized and the complete array appears to be providing continuous pumping energy. In one embodiment, the sub-arrays (A-E) are columns of the array. In another embodiment, the sub-arrays (12') are each associated with a different solid-state gain medium (10'), the gain media being optically coupled in a single laser.

Diode array providing either a pulsed or a CW mode of operation of a

A dual-wavelength laser emitter is provided for emitting a dual-wavelength laser beam. The laser emitter includes a first laser beam source for generating a first laser beam having a first frequency and a second laser beam source for generating a second laser beam having a second frequency. A beam splitter is included for combining portions of the first and second laser beams to form a dual-wavelength laser beam. The dual-wavelength laser beam is then amplified via an amplifier. A stimulated Brillouin scattering cell may be included to phase conjugate the dual-wavelength laser beam to improve the quality of the output beam. A frequency-doubling crystal may further be included for doubling the frequency of the dual-wavelength laser beam. The dual-wavelength laser emitter then emits a laser output beam as a function of the frequencies and amplitudes of the first and second laser beams.

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Glendale, CA, United States of America

Jacqueline G Berg