Nd:YAG lasers for ITER divertor Thomson scattering

Abstract We developed high energy Q-switched 1064 nm and 946 nm Nd:YAG lasers for ITER Divertor Thomson Scattering (DTS). The 1064 nm Nd:YAG laser is designed to be used as the main DTS probing laser and features output energy of 2 J at 3 ns pulse duration. MOPA configuration with phase conjugation mirror provides divergence of 1.3 times the diffraction limit and high stability of the output beam parameters with repetition rate varied from 1 to 50 Hz. The 946 nm Nd:YAG laser designed for calibration by an auxiliary Thomson spectrum at the neighboring wavelength. The 946 nm laser consists of MO based on cavity dumping, high gain regenerative preamplifier and zero diffraction length ring cavity regenerative power amplifier with image-rotation providing 1 J × 50 Hz at 3 ns pulse duration with divergence of 1.5 the diffraction limit. As far as we know this is the highest value of the output energy obtained at 946 nm with nanosecond pulse duration until now. Both lasers use unified pump modules providing high maintainability of the system. The paper describes laser design approaches, state of the art and outlook of further developments.