Development of an Efficient High Brightness Ti:Al2O3 Laser Amplifier

摘要

Ti:Al2O3 represents an exciting new material with application to many areas including atmospheric research, laser radar, and spectroscopy. It is particulary suitable for short pulse generation, since it has a very large bandwidth. In the context of short wavelength high brightness sources, MCR Technology Corporation has pursued the development of Ti:Al2O3 as a system which can be frequency doubled or tripled to produce high energy picosecond and femtosecond duration pulses at short wavelengths. To data we have demonstrated a flashlamp excited device capable of 450 mJ output at 750 nm in a 300 nsec pulse. The overall electrical to optical energy conversion was 0.18%. On the basis of this result, it is projected that overall efficiencies greater than 1 - 2% should be achievable in relatively simple and practical configurations. (JES)