RF Excited Krypton Arc Lamps for Pumping Nd: YAG Lasers.
Abstract
A Nd:YAG laser pumped by an electrodeless krypton arc lamp is described. The baseline assumption is that an electrodeless lamp should exhibit substantially improved lifetime and reliability over a dc arc lamp, and verification of lifetime of over 1000 hours in a 25 watt laser has been obtained. Radio frequency energy is coupled into the annular lamp from an induction coil whose impedance is matched to a 50 ohm transmission line by including it in a pi-network with a pair of vacuum-variable capacitors. Radiated energy from the lamp is coupled to the laser rod by enclosing both in a diffusely reflecting, light-tight structure with the laser rod on the axis of the annular geometry. The lamp is excited by 27 MHz energy which is generated from 60 Hz prime power by a specially fabricated single-tube power supply. The conversion efficiency from prime power to rf is 65% and from rf to 1.06 micrometers laser output is 2%. The maximum laser output measured was 14 watts TEM00, 20 watts TEM01 and 36 watts multimode with measured beam divergence roughly ten times the diffraction limit. Amplitude stability was approximately +ov-5%. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 1974
- Accession Number
- AD0923872
Entities
People
- D. A. Huchital