Abstract
Recent realization of diode-array end-pumped microchips1 reveals a possibility of fabricating a single-frequency solid-state laser arrays. In contrast to fiber end-pumped Nd:YAG arrays,2 the short cavity microchips provide a stable selection of the single longitudinal mode.3 The arrangement of a gain pixels in the form of a spatially periodic array with period p makes it possible to synchronize them by means of self-imaging,4 placing the output mirror at the distance being multiple of p22λ from the active slice. The small value of self-phase modulation raises the threshold of transverse chaotic instabilities.5 A weak gain-guiding within the active slice offers the possibility of using a simple numerical model based on the Fox-Lee algorithm with a nonlinear mirror (rather than a coupled-mode model6) for calculation of the stationary eigenmodes of the system, taking into account transversely inhomogeneous gain saturation and thermal lensing. The validity of this model had been tested by the split-step FFT method.7 It was shown also by 1-D numerical modeling that such a system is sensitive to small transverse phase fluctuations that lead to the ramification of a wavefront on several domains where the wavefront is almost flat, but somewhat tilted; the waves emitted by this domain interfere in the far field, increasing the beam divergence beyond the diffraction limit.8
© 1994 IEEE
PDF ArticleMore Like This
G. Yao, K. K. Lee, Y. C. Chen, and Shouhuan Zhou
NL7 Advanced Solid State Lasers (ASSL) 1994
N. MacKinnon, B. D. Sinclair, W. Sibbett, S. N. Jenny, and I. T. Jenks
CTuP2 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO:S&I) 1994
S. Tidwell, J. Seamans, and D. D. Lowenthal
TuSS4 OSA Annual Meeting (FIO) 1991