Abstract

A high-average-power, highly efficient solid- state laser is desirable, especially for application to material processing and x-ray generation. As is well known, it is very difficult to grow a large Nd: YAG crystal with high optical homogeneity. However, laser glasses of a large size with an optical homogeneity of ±1 × 10⁻⁶ can be easily obtained, but the high- frequency operation of glass laser is limited by the low thermal conductivity of glass.

© 1995 Optical Society of America