Abstract

Submegahertz frequency stability for Nd⁺³:YAG lasers at high lamp powers is very difficult to obtain due to thermal loading of the YAG rod. Byer et al. have reported a quasi-cw system producing 5msec pulses of peak power 100mW and ave rage power 5mW with a frequency stability of 200kHz and for an average lamp power of 60W. By employing a design that greatly reduces cavity sensitivity to thermal instabilities in the laser rod and by the use of a ring resonator of invar, we have achieved short-term frequency stability of approximately 400 kHz ms with a cw output power of 800mW. We believe that this is the best performance yet obtained for a high power (2.2 kW pump) cw YAG laser.

© 1984 Optical Society of America