Longitudinally laser pumped laser with compensation for thermal lens effects

摘要

A laser system is disclosed wherein a solid state gain medium (30) is longitudinally pumped with the beam (40) from another laser (42). The laser is configured with an optically stable resonator while at the same time matching the shape of the pump beam to the shape of the cavity beam in the gain medium. Optimum matching is achieved by taking into consideration thermal lens effects in the gain medium resulting from absorption of the pump beam.