Several schemes of side-pumping by novel, high brightness, 2D laser diode stacks were analyzed. The three most promising schemes were chosen, for which the optical set-ups have been designed, manufactured and preliminary characterized. The special, robust, compact cavity with high tolerances to misalignments, mechanical disturbances and shocks was designed. The analysis of temperature sensitivity of pump unit and laser was performed. In preliminary characterization 180 mJ of output energy with 2-mrad full divergence angle (parameter M² ~ 5) in free running mode for 0.8-J of incident pump energy was demonstrated in such a compact cavity with 80% transmission of integrated output coupler. The main drawbacks in such design found in preliminary experiments are: low threshold of self-lasing due to high gain density and inhomogeneities in transverse beam profile. The strategy of mitigation of these drawbacks was discussed.

Date Published: 23 December 2016
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 10142, 20th Slovak-Czech-Polish Optical Conference on Wave and Quantum Aspects of Contemporary Optics, 101420H (23 December 2016); doi: 10.1117/12.2261808

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 10142:
20th Slovak-Czech-Polish Optical Conference on Wave and Quantum Aspects of Contemporary Optics
Jarmila Müllerová; Dagmar Senderáková; Libor Ladányi; Ľubomír Scholtz, Editor(s)