Spectra Physics Lasers, Inc.

Mark S Sobey

Bertram C Johnson

James B Clark

Vincent J Newell

Glen R Blevins

A tunable laser system having a wide tunable range, and narrow line widths, achieves relatively high output powers. The tunable laser system includes a master optical parametric oscillator which generates a seed beam, and a power optical parametric oscillator which is responsive to the seed beam to generate a narrow line width, high power output beam. The master OPO and power OPO comprise gain media consisting of BBO, tunable over a range from about 400 nanometers to more than 2000 nanometers. The master OPO includes line narrowing elements, such as a tunable grating, which limits the line width of the output beam to less than one wave number (centimeter.sup.-1). Pump energy is supplied to the master OPO and power OPO using a Nd:YAG laser with a harmonic generator, so that the second, third, or fourth harmonics of the primary 1064 nanometer line of YAG can be used to pump the BBO crystals. The power OPO may be an unstable resonator.

Master optical parametric oscillator/power optical parametric oscillator

A pulsed laser system capable of operating at higher repetition rates, while maintaining the efficiency and beam quality of the output pulses comprises first and second gain media with one or more pump energy transducers, such as flashlamps, coupled with each of the gain media. A power supply generates a first sequence of pulses of input power and a second sequence of pulses of input power which drive respective subsets of the pump energy transducers in an independent timing relationship. Thus, two non-aligned 50 Hz sequences of input pulses which are interleaved generate an output pulse stream at 100 Hz from the laser system with the efficiency, beam quality, and average power comparable to that of a 50 Hz laser. By pumping subsets of the pump energy transducers coupled to a laser system in an interleaved fashion, higher repetition rates may be achieved with better output beam quality and higher average power than has been obtainable with prior art systems. The non-aligned timing also allows for variable pulse timing offsets.

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San Carlos, CA, United States of America

Mark S Sobey