Abstract

A longitudinally pumped high power Nd:YAG laser in a birefringence compensated two-head geometry is investigated. A similar system has previously been developed in which the pump wavelength had been close to the absorption maximum of Nd:YAG [1]. To achieve a homogeneous longitudinal temperature distribution and the pump light absorption as high as possible, 0.1 at.% doped crystals in a double pass configuration for the 808 nm pump light had been used. However, low doped crystals have some disadvantages concerning the reproducibility of the manufacturing process, the error in the doping concentration, and the longitudinal doping gradient. According to the manufacturers these values are given in absolute numbers and are in the range of 0.05 at.%, which means that in higher doped crystals reduced percental errors would occur.

© 2009 IEEE