Nonlinear Optics Technology. Volume 1. Solid State Laser Technology. Phase 3
Abstract
A novel regenerative amplifier concept, suitable for extraction from low gain, high saturation fluence, solid state media has been investigated. The concept is called multipass etalon-coupled conjugated amplifier (MECCA) and uses an etalon and a SBS cell or other frequency shifting medium to form a regenerative amplifier cavity. The beam is injected into the cavity through a transmission window of the etalon and is trapped in the cavity when the frequency is shifted. The beam is extracted by encountering another transmission window after a predetermined number of round trips as it marches in frequency space. Two MECCA configurations were tested. One uses SBS to provide the frequency shift the other uses an acousto-optic modulator. Using the SBS medium in a multipass configuration with short pulses caused rapid degradation of the SBS reflectivity and fidelity due to the thermalization of the SBS grating between pulses, which resulted in poor extraction and beam quality. Both extraction and beam quality were improved when the cavity was shortened to provide partial beam overlap in the SBS cell and sustained driving fields.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 12, 1991
- Accession Number
- ADA233533
Entities
People
- H. Injeyan
- J. Ho
- Jeffrey Brock
- L. Lembo
- R. Chan