Multi-color face-pumped liquid laser device

Claim 1

A multi-color, face-pumped liquid laser device comprising means for containing a plurality of different active liquid laser media and for forming only one thin sheet of each of the liquid laser media wherein the liquid sheets are spaced from each other and each sheet has two opposing major surfaces defined by the length and breadth thereof, pumping radiation means positioned adjacent at least one of the major surfaces of one of said liquid laser medium sheets and in optical communication with the plurality of different liquid laser media sheets for optically pumping the liquid media through said at least one major surface and thereby exciting the active liquid laser media sufficiently to establish population inversions in the particular upper energy states characteristic of the laser liquids, means for stimulating the emission of at least one beam of coherent electromagnetic radiation from said active liquid laser media sheets through one of the major surfaces, said laser liquid containing and sheet forming means comprises: a liquid-tight chamber formed along two opposite outer sides thereof by two parallel oriented spaced apart elongated planar side members and at least one elongated planar intermediate member disposed intermediate and parallel to said planar side members and spaced therefrom, said planar side and intermediate members having planar major surfaces contigous with corresponding major surfaces of the single sheets of different liquid laser media formed therebetween, said sheets being of elongated form along the longitudinal axis of said laser device and being superposed and separated by said intermediate member, said planar side and intermediate members being substantially totally transparent to the pumping and coherent radiations, means for supplying the plurality of different laser liquids to the spacings between said planar side and intermediate members and for exciting them therefrom in a direction transverse to the elongated dimensions of said and intermediate members, the different liquid laser media being maintained separate from each other by said planar intermediate members, said pumping radiation means positioned along the outer planar major surface of at least one of said side members so that the pumping radiation is incident on one of the major surfaces of at least one of the two outermost laser liquid sheets, and is thence transmittd through all of the sheets, first and second refracting prisms positioned at opposite ends of one of said planar side members and disposed in the optical path of the beam of coherent electromagnetic radiation for directing the beam of coherent radiation into and from the laser liquid sheets adjacent opposite ends thereof in an offaxial direction at an angle of incidence greater than the critical angle to produce multiple total internal reflections of the laser beam off the planar side member-chamber outer environment interfaces during traverse of the laser beam through the laser liquid sheets between the opposite ends thereof whereby each ray of the laser beam passes through substantially identical thermal environments to thereby substantially reduce distortion of the beam wavefront, the laser beam being a colinear beam having emission wavelength characteristics determined by the plurality of liquid laser media, said prisms being substantially totally transparent to the coherent radiation, and at least one triangular prism mounted along a portion of the outermoSt end surface of each of said first and second refracting prisms and disposed in the optical path of the colinear laser beam so that the colinear laser beam enters said laser device through a portion of a refracting prism outermost end surface along which the triangular prism is not mounted and undergoes a reflection off each of the triangular prisms to thereby multiply traverse the laser liqid sheets and more effectively extract the stored energies in the optically excited liquid laser media, the coliner laser beam exciting through another portion of a refracting prism outermost end surface along which a triangular prism is not mounted, the aperture of said laser device being determined by the breadth of sheets of liquid laser media so that a large aperture device may be obtained.