Activities on diode pumped alkali laser (DPAL) in Japan is reviewed. We have started alkali laser works in 2011, and currently, we are the only players in Japan. Our interests are application oriented, and it is not only defense but also industrial. DPAL is a good candidate as a source of remote laser machining, thanks to its scalability and extremely good beam quality. We are studying on scientific and engineering problems of Cs DPAL with a small-scale apparatus. A commercial diode laser with volume Bragg grating outcoupler is used to pump the gain cell longitudinally. A 6.5 W continuous-wave output with optical to optical efficiency of 56% (based on the absorbed power) has been achieved. Numerical simulation codes are developed to understand the physics of DPAL and to help future developments.

Date Published: 3 February 2015
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 9255, XX International Symposium on High-Power Laser Systems and Applications 2014, 92551S (3 February 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2065083

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9255:
XX International Symposium on High-Power Laser Systems and Applications 2014
Chun Tang; Shu Chen; Xiaolin Tang, Editor(s)