Abstract

Dye master-oscillator-power-amplifier (MOPA) chains pumped by copper lasers (Fig. 1) are used at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in experimental demonstrations of the atomic-vapor-laser-isotope-separation (AVLIS) process.¹ We report stable operation near 0.6 μ of one of these chains at 1200-W output (Fig. 2) and a multiple chain system at >2000 W. We believe this finding to be the highest reported average power from a visible, broadly tunable, high-pulse repetition frequency (prf) laser system, representing a ten-fold increase over power levels first achieved when the system was deployed in 1985. The chain operated at 50% chain-conversion efficiency and at >10-kHz prf. The amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) was on the order of 1-2%.

© 1991 Optical Society of America