Open AccessDiPOLE: a 10 J, 10 Hz cryogenic gas cooled multi-slab nanosecond Yb:YAG laser
Author(s) -
Saumyabrata Banerjee,
Klaus Ertel,
Paul Mason,
Jonathan Phillips,
Mariastefania De Vido,
Joanna Smith,
Thomas Butcher,
Cristina Hernandez–Gomez,
R. J. S. Greenhalgh,
John Collier
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.23.019542
Subject(s) - materials science , optics , laser , diode , laser beam quality , diode pumped solid state laser , optoelectronics , nanosecond , laser pumping , physics , laser beams
The Diode Pumped Optical Laser for Experiments (DiPOLE) project at the Central Laser Facility aims to develop a scalable, efficient high pulse energy diode pumped laser amplifier system based on cryogenic gas cooled, multi-slab ceramic Yb:YAG technology. We present recent results obtained from a scaled down prototype laser system designed for operation at 10 Hz pulse repetition rate. At 140 K, the system generated 10.8 J of energy in a 10 ns pulse at 1029.5 nm when pumped by 48 J of diode energy at 940 nm, corresponding to an optical to optical conversion efficiency of 22.5%. To our knowledge, this represents the highest pulse energy obtained from a cryo cooled Yb laser to date and the highest efficiency achieved by a multi-Joule diode pumped solid state laser system. Additionally, we demonstrated shot-to-shot energy stability of 0.85% rms for the system operated at 7 J, 10 Hz during several runs lasting up to 6 hours, with more than 50 hours in total. We also demonstrated pulse shaping capability and report on beam, wavefront and focal spot quality.