US5050175A
Expired / Lapsed
US
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Pulsed power laser with mopa structure with nonlinear energy transfer medium
Assignee: Thales SA
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Filing: 1990-06-05
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Granted: 1991-09-17
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Expires: 2010-06-05
Abstract
Abstract The aim is to provide a new power laser configuration enabling the delivery of a beam of high spatial quality with an optimum efficiency of extraction of energy. It can be applied, more particularly, to Q-switch solid-state lasers, in doing away with recourse to specific elements for compensation of aberrations. The structure of emission of a power pulsed laser signal, of the type comprising, firstly, an oscillator stage with low-level output beam and, secondly, a power amplifier stage, is characterized in that the power amplifier stage is formed by a laser amplifier that produces a pump beam cooperating with distinct means for energy transfer without phase transfer from said pump beam towards said low-level beam coming from the oscillator.
Inventors
- 👤 Jean-Luc Ayral
- 👤 Jean-Pierre Huignard
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-30 05:55
CPC Classifications
H; H01; H01S; H01S3/00; H01S3/23; H01S3/2308; H01S3/2325; H01S3/2333; G; G02; G02F; G02F1/00; G02F1/01; G02F1/03; G02F1/0338; H01S3/30; H01S3/10; H01S3/10076
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 20
Claim 1
Independent Claim
80 words
A pulsed power laser comprising: a low energy laser oscillator stage for generating a low-level output beam; a laser amplifier stage for receiving at least a fraction of the low-level output beam to generate a pump beam; and energy transfer means for amplifying the low-level output beam of the low energy laser oscillator stage by energy transfer from the pump beam generated by the laser amplifier stage without phase transfer from said pump beam to said low-level beam during amplification.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
80 words
A pulsed power laser comprising: a low energy laser oscillator stage for generating a low-level output beam; a laser amplifier stage for receiving at least a fraction of the low-level output beam to generate a pump beam; and energy transfer means for amplifying the low-level output beam of the low energy laser oscillator stage by energy transfer from the pump beam generated by the laser amplifier stage without phase transfer from said pump beam to said low-level beam during amplification.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
15 words
A laser according to claim 1, wherein said energy transfer means comprises a nonlinear medium.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
14 words
A laser according to claim 2, wherein said nonlinear medium comprises a photo-refractive material.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
19 words
A laser according to claim 3, wherein the photo-reactive material belongs to the group consisting of BaTiO and SBN.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
50 words
A laser according to claim 3, further comprising means for providing said pump beam coming from the laser amplifier stage and said low-level beam coming from the laser oscillator stage with a low relative angle of incidence of between about 5° and about 30° at entry into said photo-refractive material.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
20 words
A laser according to claim 2, wherein the non-linear medium is a Brillouin energy transfer medium for stimulating Brillouin scattering.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
41 words
A laser according to claim 6, further comprising frequency shift means for shifting a frequency of one of the low level beam coming from the oscillator stage and the pump beam of the laser amplifier stage with respect to the other.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
35 words
A laser according to claim 7, wherein said frequency shifting means comprises a hollow core multimode optical fiber filled with a same material as said Brillouin energy transfer medium, said fiber including optical delay means.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
27 words
A laser according to claim 8, further comprising selective reflecting means for selective admission, into said energy transfer means, of said low-level beam from the oscillator stage.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
27 words
A laser according to claim 9, wherein the selective reflecting means comprises a polarizing element having one of a quarter-wave plate and a Faraday type polarization rotator.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
26 words
A laser according to claim 10, wherein the polarizing element of the selective reflecting means comprises one of a polarization separator cube and a Brewster plate.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
28 words
A laser according to claim 7, wherein said frequency shift means comprises an optical element of a same material as the non-linear medium of the energy transfer means.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
27 words
A laser according to claim 1, further comprising means for supplying said laser amplifier stage with a fraction of the low-level beam coming from the oscillator stage.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
25 words
A laser according to claim 13, further comprising beam-transmitting means for transmitting the low-level beam in at least one second pass through said amplifier stage.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
17 words
A laser according to claim 14, wherein said beam-transmitting means comprises a pseudo-mirror with phase conjugation means.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
29 words
A laser according to claim 14, further comprising an optical delay line for preventing overlapping of transmission of the low-level beams through said amplifier stage during each pass therethrough.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
58 words
A laser according to claim 16, further comprising selective reflecting means, placed at an optical axis of said laser amplifier stage for selectively providing admission, into said amplifier laser stage, of said fraction of low-level beam coming from the oscillator stage and, transmission, towards the energy transfer means, of the pump beam coming from said laser amplifier stage.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
19 words
A laser according to claim 1, wherein said laser oscillator stage is a solid-state laser pumped by laser diodes.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
30 words
A laser according to claim 1, wherein said laser amplifier stage is an Nd:YAG rod pumped by at least one of a flash lamp and a plurality of laser diodes.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
US4734911A
Cited
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