Abstract

Diode lasers represent efficient (46%),¹ powerful, and intense (76 W for a 1 cm long laser bar),¹ narrow-band, reliable, and compact power sources for pumping solid state lasers.² A transverse pump geometry is evaluated combining the advantage of adding a scalable number of diode lasers around and along a crystal rod with the capacity of matching the pump intensity maximum onto the axis of a fundamental solid-state laser mode. The pump arrangement uses glass plates to guide the radiation from the diode front surfaces onto the Nd:YAG crystal. The 2-cm-long and 150-μm-thick glass plates open the space for eight singly cooled 5-W laser diodes mounted circumferentially around the crystal.

© 1994 IEEE