The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 25, 1999
Filed:
Oct. 22, 1997
William L Nighan, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Mark S Keirstead, San Jose, CA (US);
Emily Cheng, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Spectra-Physics, Inc., Mountain View, CA (US);
Abstract
A diode pumped laser includes a resonator mirror and an output coupler, defining a laser resonator with a resonator optical axis. A strong thermal lens gain medium with a TEM.sub.00 mode diameter is mounted in the resonator along the resonator optical axis. The dopant level of the gain medium is in the range of 0.01 to less than 0.5 percent. A diode pump source supplies a pump beam to the gain medium in the laser resonator, and produces an output beam with a diameter larger than the TEM.sub.00 mode diameter to reduce thermal birefringence. A power source supplies power to the diode pump source. A polarizing element can be positioned in the resonator, along with a aperture stop The laser operates well over a large range of pump powers. Its slope efficiency in the TEM.sub.00 mode is greater than 40%, with an overall efficiency greater than 25%. One of the gain mediums used is Nd:YVO.sub.4. This material exhibits high gain and a short upper state lifetime. These properties make it attractive in designing a Q-switched laser, or one that is insensitive to optical feedback. Another material is Nd:YAG. The technique of optimizing the pump beam spot size is found to minimize loss due to thermal birefringence.