The high gain Diode Pumped Alkali Laser (DPAL) system will require an unstable resonator with high Fresnel number and high output coupling to achieve excellent beam quality. Coupling of the diode pump and laser radiation fields is dramatic in the DPAL system. Merging flow field analysis of the gain medium with wave optics resonator simulations requires new techniques. We develop a wave-optics simulation of confocal, positive-branch unstable resonators for the DPAL gain media to assess the limitations on far field beam quality. The design and analysis of the DPAL resonator and the influence of spatial variations in gain medium on far field beam quality are developed. The relative advantages of longitudinal and transverse flow geometries to beam quality are evaluated. A systematic study of the influence of gain medium aberrations, flow geometry, magnification, and resonator design on far field beam quality is reported.

Date Published: 20 February 2017
PDF: 20 pages
Proc. SPIE 10090, Laser Resonators, Microresonators, and Beam Control XIX, 100901M (20 February 2017); doi: 10.1117/12.2253057

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 10090:
Laser Resonators, Microresonators, and Beam Control XIX
Alexis V. Kudryashov; Alan H. Paxton; Vladimir S. Ilchenko, Editor(s)