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Thin Disk Lasers Power Scalability and Beam Quality LASER SOURCES Thin Disk Lasers Power scalability and beam quality The results for cw- and q-switched THE AUTHOR which need the specific properties of thin operation as well as for the amplification disk lasers which cannot be provided by of short (ns) and ultra-short (ps, fs) pulses classical laser systems. demonstrate the potential of the thin disk ADOLF GIESEN laser design. The scaling laws for this laser Study of physics at Bonn Thin disk laser principle design show that the power limit for cw- University, Ph.D. in 1982. operation is far beyond 10 kW for a single From 1982 to 1986 with One of the outstanding features of the disk and the energy limit is higher than 1 J DLR (former DFVLR, the thin disk laser is its excellent beam quality, from one disk in pulsed operation. Due to German Aerospace Establishment), respon- which results from the surface cooling of the surface cooling of the disk, the optical sible for resonators, optics and discharge the laser disk. Figure 1 shows the principle distortion of the laser beam is low and technology in the CO2-laser developing of the thin disk laser design [1, 2]. The laser therefore operation of the thin disk laser group. Since 1986 at the Institut fuer crystal is shaped as a disk with a diameter is possible in fundamental mode at extre- Strahlwerkzeuge (IFSW) of the University of several mm (depending on the output mely high output power. Stuttgart. Head of the department for laser power/energy) and a thickness of 100 µm development and laser optics, working on to 200 µm, depending on the laser active The thin disk laser concept is a laser design diode pumped solid state lasers (thin disk material, the doping concentration and for diode-pumped solid-state lasers, which laser) and on characterization of laser beams the pump design. The disk is highly reflec- allows the realization of lasers with high and of optical components used with lasers. tive coated on its back side for both the output power, having very good efficiency ●● laser and the pump wavelengths and anti- and also excellent beam quality. Since the Dr. Adolf Giesen reflectively coated on the front side for both first demonstration of the principle in 1993 Institut für Strahlwerkzeuge, wavelengths. This disk is mounted with its University of Stuttgart the output power of one single disk has been Pfaffenwaldring 43, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany back side on a water-cooled heat sink using increased to 4 kW in cw-operation. Thin disk phone +49-(0)711-685-6846 indium-based or gold-tin solder. This tech- lasers with up to 4 kW are now commercially fax +49(0)711-685-7244 nique allows a very stiff fixation of the disk e-mail: [email protected] available for materials processing. The beam web: www.ifsw.uni-stuttgart.de on the heat sink without any deformation of quality (focusability) of all commercially the disk, which acts as a mirror. To reduce the available thin disk lasers is always better than for rod lasers of similar power. Furthermore, pump radiation lasers with up to 100 W of power are avai- solder lable with fundamental mode (M² < 1.2). Additionally, the electrical efficiency is higher than that of all other commercially available solid-state lasers with similar power. The thin disk laser design also allows highly laser beam efficient pulsed operation as a q-switched D laser or as a laser amplifier. In particular, the generation and amplification of ultra-short pulses is possible with a very high average power and also high efficiency. These pro- d heat sink perties of thin disk lasers will open the way to o.c. mirror a completely new class of ultra-short pulsed laser systems for materials processing. thin disk pump radiation With all its outstanding features, the thin disk laser will not only replace classical laser sys- FIGURE 1: Thin disk laser design: The laser crystal is shaped as a disk with a diameter tems in many applications but in particular it of several mm (depending on the output power/energy) and a thickness of 100 µm to will create new markets for laser technology 200 µm. 42 LTJ June 2005 No. 2 © 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim LASER SOURCES stress during the soldering process, as much this part of the pump power onto the laser hand, the possibility of building lasers of the as possible, the heat sink is made from a heat disk. A very elegant way of increasing the highest efficiency. But on the other hand, expansion matched material (Cu-W). The number of pump beam passes through the they are hard to operate because they show a heat sink is water-cooled by impingement disk is shown in Figure 2. The radiation of relatively high absorption of the laser-wave- cooling using a multi-nozzle design inside the laser diodes for pumping the disk is first length since the lower laser level is so close to the heat sink. homogenized either by fibre coupling of the the ground state that a considerable number Due to this mounting and cooling techni- pump radiation or by focusing the pump of the laser-ions are in the lower laser level, que, the temperature gradients inside the laser crystal are mainly coaxial to the disk axis and the laser beam axis. The tempe- heat sink with crystal folding mirrors parabolic mirror rature in the radial direction is nearly uni- in focal plane form within the homogeneously pumped 2 central area of the disk. Therefore, these 8 3 temperature gradients only slightly influ- fiber coupled collimating lens 5 6 ence the laser beam propagation through diode laser the disk. All the thermal lens effects and the 4 7 aspherical parts of the profile of the index 1 of refraction are reduced by more than one order of magnitude compared with rod laser systems. The stress-induced birefringence is FIGURE 2: Pump design of the thin disk laser with 16 pump beam passes. The radiation even further reduced and can be neglected of the laser diodes for pumping the disk is first homogenized either by fibre coupling of the pump radiation or by focusing the pump radiation into a quartz rod. for real laser systems. Additionally, due to the large surface-to-volume ratio, the heat radiation into a quartz rod. The end of either when the laser is operated at room tempe- dissipation from the disk into the heat sink the fibre or the quartz rod is the source of rature. Therefore, it is necessary to pump is very efficient, thus allowing operation at the pump radiation, which is imaged onto the material with high pump power density extremely high volume power densities in the disk using the collimating lens and the in order to reach the threshold without in- the disk (up to 1 MW/cm³ absorbed pump parabolic mirror. In this way a very homo- creasing the temperature of the crystal too power density). geneous pump profile with the appropriate much. Using multiple pump beam passes The crystal can be pumped in a quasi-end- power density in the disk can be achieved, through the crystal is therefore the key to pumped scheme. In this case the pump which is necessary for good beam quality. achieve low threshold and high efficiency, beam impinges on the crystal at an oblique The unabsorbed part of the pump radiation because this helps to simultaneously reduce angle. Depending on the thickness and the is collimated again at the opposite side of the thickness of the crystal and the doping doping level of the crystal, only a small frac- the parabolic mirror. This beam is re-direc- concentration. This decoupling of laser and tion of the pump radiation is absorbed in the ted, using two mirrors, to another part of pump beam absorption is essential for the laser disk. Most of the incident pump power the parabolic mirror where the pump beam operation of quasi-three-level systems. The leaves the crystal after being reflected at the is focused again onto the disk, this time from limit for the possible number of pump beam back side. The absorption can be increased another direction. This re-imaging proce- passes through the disk is given by the beam by successive re-directing and imaging of dure can be repeated until all the (virtual) quality of the laser diodes which determines positions of the parabolic mirror have been the beam diameter on the parabolic mirror THE INSTITUTE used. At the end the pump beam is re-di- and hence the number of positions on the rected back to the source, thereby doubling mirror which can be used. The better the Institut für Strahlwerkzeuge the number of pump beam passes through beam quality of the pump laser diodes, the Stuttgart the disk. In this way up to 32 passes of the higher the number of pump beam passes pump radiation through the disk have been that are possible and the higher will be the The Institut für Strahlwerkzeuge (IFSW) realized and more than 90% of the pump total efficiency of the thin disk laser. at the University of Stuttgart, founded in power is absorbed into the disk. When operating the disk in this set-up it is 1986, is recognized as one of the leading Using multiple pump beam passes through easy to scale the output power or energy just laser centers worldwide. It´s strength the disk, results in a thinner disk and/or a by increasing the pump spot diameter while is based on the holistic approach that lower doping concentration, thus reducing keeping the pump power density constant.
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