Optical Resonators Design for Solid State High Power Lasers

Methods and configurations for the design of high power solid-state pulsed laser resonators, operating in free running, are presented. For fundamental mode high power resonators, a method is proposed for the design of a resonator with joined stability zones. In the case of multimode resonators, two configurations are introduced for maximizing the laser overall efficiency due to the compensation of the astigmatism induced by the excitation. The first configuration consists in a triangular ring resonator. The results for this configuration are discussed theoretically, showing that it is possible to compensate the astigmatism of the thermal lens virtually in a 100%; however this is only possible for a specific pumping power. The second configuration proposes a dual-active medium resonator, rotated 90 degree one from the other around the optical axis, where each active medium acts as an astigmatic lens of the same dioptric power. The reliability of this configuration is corroborated experimentally using a YAG:Nd dual-active medium resonator. It is found that in the pumping power range where the astigmatism compensation is possible, the overall efficiency is constant, even when increasing the excitation power with the consequent increase of the thermal lens dioptric power.