Slab-Shaped 10-kW All-Solid-State Laser

This paper describes the development of diode-pumped high-power slab Nd:YAG lasers. Employing the laser diode pumping method, we realized a highly -efficient, high-power zigzag-slab laser with a small laser head volume. We found that it is still very important to realize the uniform pumped state and to greatly reduce the thermal lens even when using the slab media. After optimizing the pumping head, we obtained an average output power of 6.1 kW using a single YAG crystal with a laser head volume of 0.01 m3. Employing the polarization coupling method for two beams from two slab YAG lasers, we realized an average output power of 10.2 kW, an efficiency of 20.1 % and a laser head volume of 0.046 m3.