Laser pump cavity apparatus with improved thermal lensing control, cooling, and fracture strength and method
US5974061A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 19, 1997 |
| Grant date | Oct 26, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 19, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH01S3/094084
- WIPO fieldOptics
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A laser pump cavity apparatus with integral concentrator provides improved thermal lensing control, cooling and fracture strength. The concentrator is formed around a doped solid-state laser medium by diffusion bonding, using a material different than the doped laser medium and with a substantially lower index of refraction, higher thermal conductivity and higher stress fracture strength than the doped laser crystal. The concentrator has a top cladding layer with a cylindrical focusing surface and a bottom cladding layer with a cylindrical focusing surface and may have edge cladding layers. Cold plates, each of which also has one cylindrical surface, are placed in thermal contact with the cylindrical surfaces of the top and bottom cladding layers. The cylindrical surfaces preferably have hyperbolic or quasi-hyperbolic shape. The laser pump cavity apparatus is preferably pumped with several laser diode arrays in directions transverse to a laser beam axis. The pumplight is injected from the laser diode arrays through the edge cladding layers in directions toward line foci of the cylindrical surfaces. The concentrator top and bottom cladding material is preferably sapphire and the dop…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.