Highly efficient cryogenically-cooled Yb:YAG laser

Abstract

A MOPA laser system for high pulse energy and high average power has been developed by using a cryogenic Yb:YAG. In the regenerative amplifier with our original TRAM architecture, the high pulse energies of 6.5 and 1.5 mJ were obtained at the repetition rate of 200 Hz and 1 kHz, respectively. An optical efficiency was as high as ηo-o = 9.3% with an excellent beam quality of M 2 < 1.1, which ensured that a cryogenic Yb:YAG TRAM had a high thermal strength. The following four pass power amplifier with a cryogenic Yb:YAG rod showed 140 mJ at 100 Hz. Both a high optical efficiency of ηo-o = 30% and a high slope efficiency of ηs = 44% showed that an efficient laser operation could be realized for a power amplification with both a high pulse energy and a high average power by using a cryogenic Yb:YAG.