United States Patent (19) 11) 4,156,852 Hagen (45) May 29, 1979
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United States Patent (19) 11) 4,156,852 Hagen (45) May 29, 1979 54 MULTIPASS LASER AMPLIFICATION 4,093,924 6/1978 Farcy .................................... 330/4.3 WITH NEAR-FELD FAR-FELD OPTICAL OTHER PUBLICATIONS SEPARATION Hunt et al., “The Use of Multiple Spatial Felters as a 75) Inventor: Wilhelm F. Hagen, Livermore, Calif. Relay Line in Laser Fusion Systems', 9/9/76, pp. 1-7, 73) Assignee: The United States of America as Preprint 78653, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. represented by the United States Primary Examiner-Nelson Moskowitz Department of Energy, Washington, Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Roger S. Gaither; P. Martin D.C. Simpson; John F. Schipper 21 Appl. No.: 868,640 57 ABSTRACT 22 Filed: Jan. 11, 1978 This invention discloses two classes of optical configu rations for high power laser amplification, one allowing 51) int. Cl’................................................ H01S 3/08 near-field and the other allowing far-field optical sepa 52 U.S. C. ................................. 330/4.3; 331/94.5 C ration, for the multiple passage of laser pulses through 58) Field of Search .................... 330/4.3; 331/94.5 C, one or more amplifiers over an open optical path. These 356/106 LR configurations may reimage the amplifier or any other (56) References Cited part of the cavity on itself so as to suppress laser beam U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS intensity ripples that arise from diffraction and/or non linear effects. The optical cavities combine the features 3,247,467 4/1966 Geusic et al. ... 330/4.3 of multiple passes, spatial filtering and optical reimaging 3,258,717 6/1966 Katzman ....... ... 330/4.3 3,585,523 6/1971 Glenn et al. ...... 331/94.5 C and allow sufficient time for laser gain recovery. 3,942,127 3/1976 Fluhr et al. ........................... 330/4.3 4,001,705 1/1977 Sinclair et al. .................. 331/94.5 C 36 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures U.S. Patent May 29, 1979 Sheet 1 of 3 4,156,852 M4 KS) &S3%2147 F34 &(SXS %2 & 22 SA-F2 PM2 Mo 3. 2 NS 2,SX2 XVZ... 2. 2 P2 -- X NZ U.S. Patent May 29, 1979 Sheet 3 of 3 4,156,852 twin aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. 4,156,852 1. 2 generative amplifier and being driven by a low power MULTIPASS LASER AMPLFICATION WITH oscillator, with the amplifier gain just below the thresh NEAR-FELD FAR-FELD OPTICAL SEPARATION old for oscillation. The gain medium of this traveling wave regenerative amplifier is driven in only one direc BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION tion around the ring and requires slaving the resonant The invention described herein arose at the Law frequency of the ring interferometer to the oscillator, rence Livermore Laboratory, University of California, which should have spectrally pure output. in the course of or under contract W-7405-ENG-48 U.S. Pat. No. 3,414,835 to Miller, teaches and claims with the U.S. Department of Energy. the use of a closed path optical system to cause an in The use of multipass amplifiers is potentially attrac 10 jected laser pulse to be multiply reflected from two or tive in laser generation of high density and high temper more surfaces and to be periodically focused and refo ature plasmas as it reduces the number of amplifiers cused so that the light beam passes through a transpar required in an amplifier chain and thus reduces the cost ent work piece or sample many times. No provision is and complexity of the associated laser system while made for rapidly and repetitively amplifying the laser increasing the overall system efficiency. Up to 35% of 15 the stored energy can be extracted efficiently from a pulse each time it traverses the optical system or for conventional single pass laser amplifier in a short pulse, positioning the target in the cavity. due to the flux limitations caused by damage of optical U.S. Pat. No. 3,668,536 to Michon teaches the use of components and due to depletion of the population a single amplifier with fully reflective means spaced inversion in the two energy levels used for amplifica 20 from the ends of the amplifier, to reflect light back into tion. Multiple passes through an amplifier can double the amplifier and cause the amplifier to respond as if it the extracted energy, provided that sufficient time be were several amplifier stages in series. Pulse switchout tween passes is allowed for laser gain recovery through means is also provided. Michon is forced to shorten his decay of the lower laser level or by other processes. pulse initally, to avoid overlap between counterpropa A number of requirements are essential in any high 25 gating portions of the same pulse; and Michon does not power laser amplifier chain design. Spatial filtering indicate how his amplifier stages might be repetitively between amplifier passes is necessary to reduce the pumped or how laser beam intensity ripples might be growth of small scale intensity ripples on the beam, suppressed as the beam traverses the optical cavity. arising from non-linear effects. Reimaging of the beam Welch, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,968,456, teaches and claims on itself or beam optical relaying from one amplifier to 30 the use of an optical cavity, containing two plane mir the next is desirable to avoid large scale beam intensity rors, two lenses and an amplifier, together with an ex ripples due to diffraction and/or non-linear effects. For ternal collimating lens for "directing' an external light the multipass configurations considered here, it is im beam into the cavity, in a regenerative laser device. The portant to keep the cavity losses as low as possible. Use external lens is positioned adjacent and parallel to one of optical components that do not contribute to non-lin 35 of the cavity mirrors and is spaced a distance equal to ear beam distortion is preferable so that, ceteris paribus, external lens focal length from the adjacent mirror. The use of mirrors is preferable to the use of lenses. In mul adjacent mirror is a highly transparent one, transmitting tipass configurations with spatial filters it is essential to approximately 90% of the radiation incident thereon allow time for dispersal of any plasma blowoff gener from within the cavity. The Welch invention serves as ated at a spatial filter aperture. Estimates of the dis a highly sensitive amplifier or sensor of radiation inci persal time for such a plasma correspond to a path dent upon the external lens, with the optical cavity length of several kilometers, which would significantly amplifier being excited to just below threshold for laser increase the cost of a multipass system with a single operation, but the configuration is not particularly use pinhole. The use of several, sequentially used spatial ful for a high power laser system. The cavity lenses 8, 12 filters allows selection of different aperture sizes and 45 of Welch cause the light beam to converge as the beam associated cutoff frequencies of the intensity ripples in passes through the amplifier so that the fill factor and the laser beam. maximum gain are reduced. Further, the use of a highly Multipass and/or regenerative amplifiers have been transmissive mirror 14 defining one end of the cavity known for many years but have never been applied in would be detrimental in the multipass configuration the present context. U.S. Pat. No. 3,597,695 to Swain et 50 employed in the subject invention. all teaches and shows use of one or more passes of a laser A "Long Path Laser' was built at Lawrence Liver pulse through a single amplifier placed inside an optical more Laboratory to provide nine passes of a laser beam cavity for laser amplification. The (polarized) laser through a disk amplifier over an open optical path. As pulses are injected into the cavity, which contains the shown in Lawrence Livermore Laboratory Report amplifier and two mirrors spaced therefrom, and are 55 UCRL-50021-71 Rev. 1 pp. 24-27. The beam was not allowed to pass one or more times through the amplifier focused between any of the 9 passes, and the energy before being switched out of the cavity by polarity output was only 200 Joules. control using a Pockels cell. The amplifier is excited Past attempts to use regenerative amplifiers have only once, and the energy output of the amplifier is been limited by the switch-out phase after laser beam limited by damage to the weakest component, which is amplification by diffraction effects, and by non-linear the Pockels cell. Swain et al, appears to contemplate optics. As shown in the Long Path Laser, no switch is only the use of a relatively long lifetime gain medium, needed in an open optical path. As laser beam energy such as Nd:glass, where multiple excitation of the gain increases, the switch becomes a limiting element in the medium is unnecessary. Multiple excitation of the am laser. In the Miller patent, the laser beam is focused on plifier medium and switching techniques implying other 65 to a workpiece, but Miller does not address the diffrac means than a Pockel cell are not described. tion and non-linear optics problems. In none of these U.S. Pat. No. 3,646,469 to Buczek et all teaches and patents is a spatial filter or an optical relay suggested. claims the use of a ring interferometer, acting as a re Design difficulties regarding beam quality of a laser 4,156,852 3 4. beam exiting on open optical paths are not solved in the DETAILED DESCRIPTION above art.