Abstract

The use of phase-conjugating mirrors facilitated a significant improvement in the performance of solid state lasers by compensating phase distortions from highly pumped laser rods. With master-oscillator double pass amplifier (MOPA) rod system average output powers of more than 100 Watts were reported.^1,2 For industrial micromachining or marking average output powers of several ten Watts with diffraction-limited beam quality are required. For these purposes the laser should be as simple as possible. Thus we investigated the possibilities of using phase-conjugating mirrors in solid-state rod laser resonators.

© 1996 Optical Society of America