System for amplifying laser beams

Abstract

A uni-directional laser amplifier system including a diverged beam having either a single unstructured pulse or a train of such pulses amplified to a very high power level over a long, folded amplification path. The beam emerges via a large, elliptical, cross-section aperture. The system includes two spaced rows of amplifying segments of elliptical and progressively increasing cross-sectional area with each segment having two polished non-parallel flat end surfaces with the front surface of each being anti-reflection coated and the rear surface having a laser mirror attached thereto or separated in conjunction with it by at least half the length of the laser pulse to be amplified. The segments are oriented an an angle of approximately 45.degree. to the length of its row and at an angle of about 90.degree. to the segments which follows in the amplifying sequence so that any pair of segments in the row with their front faces facing each other will reflect the diverged beam traversing the amplifier to a total angle of about 180.degree. with the beam traversing each segment twice during this process. The system further includes optical excitation sources positioned along each row of segments matching their respective parameters in both size and power and separated from each other by a pair of segments which turn the beam to the 180.degree. angle.