Abstract

At CLEO ’85 we reported an efficient flashlamp-pumped titanium-doped sapphire laser capable of output energies of several hundred millijoules. Despite advances in efficiency, however, high-power operation of the laser was still limited in part by short flashlamp life (~10³ shots). We now report a system with greatly extended flashlamp life (10⁵–10⁶ shot), which for the first time makes possible a flashlamp-pumped system with multiwatt average power.

© 1986 Optical Society of America