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US20060039425A1 - Solid-state suspension laser - Google Patents

Solid-state suspension laser Download PDF

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Publication number
US20060039425A1
US20060039425A1 US10/915,229 US91522904A US2006039425A1 US 20060039425 A1 US20060039425 A1 US 20060039425A1 US 91522904 A US91522904 A US 91522904A US 2006039425 A1 US2006039425 A1 US 2006039425A1
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Prior art keywords
gain
resonator
laser
gain medium
fluid
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US10/915,229
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English (en)
Inventor
Alexander Betin
Kalin Spariosu
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OL Security LLC
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Raytheon Co
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Priority to US10/915,229 priority Critical patent/US20060039425A1/en
Assigned to RAYTHEON COMPANY reassignment RAYTHEON COMPANY ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: BETIN, ALEXANDER A., SPARIOSU, KALIN
Priority to PCT/US2005/027472 priority patent/WO2006026037A1/fr
Priority to EP05809996A priority patent/EP1779480A1/fr
Publication of US20060039425A1 publication Critical patent/US20060039425A1/en
Priority to IL180485A priority patent/IL180485A/en
Priority to US11/804,804 priority patent/US7646796B2/en
Priority to US12/592,232 priority patent/US8000362B2/en
Assigned to OL SECURITY LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY reassignment OL SECURITY LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: RAYTHEON COMPANY
Abandoned legal-status Critical Current

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    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S3/00—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range
    • H01S3/05—Construction or shape of optical resonators; Accommodation of active medium therein; Shape of active medium
    • H01S3/06—Construction or shape of active medium
    • H01S3/0602—Crystal lasers or glass lasers
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S3/00—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range
    • H01S3/02—Constructional details
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S3/00—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range
    • H01S3/05—Construction or shape of optical resonators; Accommodation of active medium therein; Shape of active medium
    • H01S3/06—Construction or shape of active medium
    • H01S3/0602—Crystal lasers or glass lasers
    • H01S3/0612—Non-homogeneous structure
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S3/00—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range
    • H01S3/14—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range characterised by the material used as the active medium
    • H01S3/16—Solid materials
    • H01S3/1601—Solid materials characterised by an active (lasing) ion
    • H01S3/1603—Solid materials characterised by an active (lasing) ion rare earth
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S3/00—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range
    • H01S3/14—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range characterised by the material used as the active medium
    • H01S3/16—Solid materials
    • H01S3/169—Nanoparticles, e.g. doped nanoparticles acting as a gain material
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S3/00—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range
    • H01S3/14—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range characterised by the material used as the active medium
    • H01S3/20—Liquids

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to optical systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to solid-state lasers.
  • Weapon-class lasers are required to have the highest possible power per weight ratio in order to fulfill requirements for a variety of airborne and ground tactical applications.
  • the implementation of a high-energy weapon-class laser system is currently limited to large platforms: due to the relatively low power per weight ratio numbers in the present approaches.
  • Prior attempts to implement a weapons class laser range from the chemical laser to the diode-pumped solid-state power oscillator (PO).
  • the chemical laser is a highly complex system and typically takes up a good portion of the available real estate in an aircraft.
  • the chemical handling makes this an extremely cumbersome and undesirable approach.
  • the relatively clean diode-pumped solid-state laser approach is much more desirable.
  • Solid-state lasers have their share of problems. These devices typically require active (or passive) phase conjugation techniques to compensate for high beam distortion generated as the laser propagates through the amplifier chain.
  • the gain elements themselves are currently comprised of complex, composite slabs that are very expensive and prone to damage.
  • Large size solid-state laser active media are required for power/energy scaling of laser systems, but such media is difficult to fabricate.
  • the number of potential materials for the gain medium is also reduced, since some materials cannot be grown to the sizes needed for a high-energy laser.
  • the large size of the gain medium makes it harder for thermal management to extract heat out of the medium.
  • the large gain medium also makes it more difficult to control optical uniformity, making it harder to control laser beam quality.
  • the MOPA approach limits the ultimate optical (and, therefore, the overall) conversion efficiency, which results in increased power and wastes heat extraction real estate.
  • One high-energy solid-state PO laser is the multiple disk heat capacity laser.
  • This laser uses multiple disks of smaller size gain media instead of a single, large bulk medium. Thermal management, however, remains a problem for this approach. The laser can only operate for a few seconds before it needs to be cooled. The smaller gain media disks are faster to cool than a single bulk medium, but several minutes could still be needed for cooling before the laser can be reactivated. In addition, pumping for the multiple disk laser can be difficult to arrange.
  • Fiber lasers have inherently high efficiencies because they allow for 100% pump power absorption and operate at very high laser intensity, and can be cooled efficiently due to their inherently high surface to volume ratio. Fiber lasers, however, are ultimately limited by the maximum power at which they can operate due to intensity damage threshold limits. In order to generate higher powers, several fibers need to be combined. This, however, requires phasing of multiple fiber oscillators, which adds a number of problems (not satisfactorily solved yet) and associated complexities.
  • the need in the art is addressed by the solid-state suspension laser of the present invention.
  • the novel laser includes a gain medium comprised of a plurality of solid-state gain particles suspended in a fluid.
  • the laser also includes a pump source for pumping the gain particles and a resonator for amplifying and outputting laser light generated by the gain medium.
  • the gain medium is adapted to flow, and the pumping of the gain medium occurs outside of the resonator.
  • the flow velocities and the densities of the gain particles in the gain medium can be optimized for optimal absorption efficiency during the pumping and/or for optimal extraction efficiency in the resonator as well as for overall laser performance optimization, including power, efficiency and beam quality scalability.
  • FIG. 1 is a simplified schematic of an illustrative embodiment of a laser designed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.
  • FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of an illustrative embodiment of a laser system designed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.
  • FIG. 3 a is a side view of an illustrative embodiment of a laser with separate pump and resonator regions designed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.
  • FIG. 3 b is an end view of an illustrative embodiment of a laser with separate pump and resonator regions designed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.
  • FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a pump module for a laser designed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.
  • FIG. 5 is a top view of the resonator region of a laser designed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.
  • FIG. 6 is a side view of a resonator with a flipped resonator design for a laser designed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.
  • FIG. 7 is an illustration showing two different optical rays passing through a solid-state suspension medium designed in accordance with the present teachings.
  • a laser typically includes a gain medium disposed in a resonator, and a pump source.
  • the gain medium is excited to a higher energy state by the pump source, and the resultant emitted light is bounced back and forth within the resonator, triggering further stimulated emissions.
  • the laser gain medium can be a solid-state, liquid, gas, or semiconductor.
  • the present invention relates to solid-state lasers.
  • Solid-state lasers typically use a gain medium that is comprised of active lasing ions distributed in a solid matrix (a crystalline or glass host material).
  • Common solid-state media include Nd:YAG (neodymium doped yttrium-aluminum-garnet), Yb:YAG (ytterbium doped yttrium-aluminum-garnet), Nd:glass (neodymium doped glass), Er:glass (erbium doped glass), Yb:glass (ytterbium doped glass), and others.
  • a conventional solid-state gain medium is usually in the form of a solid rod of doped glass or crystal.
  • the novel laser of the present invention uses a lasing medium comprised of a plurality of solid-state gain particles suspended in a fluid host.
  • FIG. 1 is a simplified schematic of an illustrative embodiment of a laser 10 designed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.
  • the laser 10 includes a gain medium 12 disposed in a resonator 14 formed by a mirror 16 and an output coupler 18 (a partially reflective mirror), and a pump source 20 , which generates optical energy 22 for pumping the gain medium 12 .
  • the optical output 24 generated by the gain medium 12 bounces back and forth between the two mirrors 16 and 18 , and exits through the output coupler 18 .
  • the gain medium 12 is comprised of a plurality of solid-state gain particles 26 suspended in a fluid 28 .
  • the suspension gain medium 12 may be held within a container 30 formed from an optically transparent material, such as glass.
  • the gain particles 26 can be fabricated from any material capable of lasing, including conventional solid-state gain media such as Er:glass, Yb:glass, Nd:glass, Nd:YAG, Yb:YAG, and others.
  • the particles 26 are solid-state micro-sphere gain elements (the particles 26 can actually be of any arbitrary shape without departing from the scope of the present teachings), having diameters on the order of microns (or smaller) to millimeters.
  • the small individual micro-sphere gain element size greatly relaxes the manufacturing requirements for fabricating a laser gain medium, leading the way towards high energy laser scaling. This also greatly expands the range of laser active medium materials that can be used in the fabrication process; non-traditional gain host media such as less robust crystals (MgF 2 , CaF 2 , BaF 2 , etc., for example) can be utilized. Low thermal conductivity laser active media, such as based on glass materials, can be used. Ceramics materials can be used as well.
  • the gain surface area becomes very large relative to the volume.
  • the much higher (orders of magnitude compared to bulk media) surface area to volume ratio in the lasing volume greatly improves waste heat removal and thermal management, which may also lead to relaxed cooling support infrastructure requirements (reduced weight and volume).
  • the solid-state gain particles 26 are suspended in a fluid host 28 .
  • the fluid 28 can be any material capable of suspending the particles 26 , and capable of transmitting the pump radiation 22 and the laser energy 24 (i.e., optically transparent).
  • the host fluid 28 may be a cryogenically cooled liquid to help with thermal management and improvement of overall laser performance.
  • the fluid 28 is a liquid host having a refractive index matching that of the gain particles 26 . Note that although the gain particles 26 may be suspended in a liquid host 28 , the gain medium itself is solid-state, not liquid.
  • the fluid 28 acts as an inactive host, while the pumping and laser energy extraction occurs in the solid-state gain particles 26 . Therefore, solid-state laser physics apply.
  • the gain medium of the particles 26 can be of any lasing material, some solid-state hosts provide for more favorable laser physics properties and refractive indices for matching to robust, available index-matching fluids.
  • an Yb or Er doped solid-state host The table below lists potential solid-state hosts for Er or Yb gain ions and corresponding index matching suspension fluid candidates: Solid- Matching state host liquid index Catalog material of refraction Manufacturer Number Description Properties glass 1.53-1.56 Cargille 20150-20190 Laser index Mineral oil class, non-toxic, (n ⁇ 1.55) matching liquid operation: 20-150° F.
  • solid-state gain host/suspension fluid combinations there are a variety of solid-state gain host/suspension fluid combinations that can be employed for this implementation.
  • the glass-based approach can leverage the maturity of the fiber optics and fiber laser technology as well as the availability of relatively robust index-matching liquids.
  • the refractive index, n, of glass can be tailored or controlled with an accuracy of ⁇ n ⁇ 10 ⁇ 4 , using technologies developed for fiber-optic products.
  • the Er: and Yb: glass laser gain media have favorable properties for implementation in the laser system of the present invention. Manufacturability of fibers as well as micro-spheres from this material is well established.
  • pump diode sources as well as proper index matching liquids are available for this solid-state host.
  • the resonantly pumped Yb:glass (or Er:glass) laser also provides for a low quantum defect efficient laser (less energy is wasted in the transition between pump absorption and laser extraction, which minimizes the heat load).
  • the refractive index match can be tailored and maintained by varying and controlling the operating temperature due to refractive index temperature dependence. For instance, several degrees in temperature change may lead to about 10 ⁇ 3 change in refractive index of liquid.
  • the illustrative embodiment shown in FIG. 1 is a simple example where the gain medium 12 stays within the resonator 14 and is pumped within the resonator 14 , as with a conventional bulk solid-state laser.
  • the suspension fluid can be adapted to flow, providing for dynamic flow/cycling for efficient heat management even at very high, multi-kilowatt power levels.
  • the suspension fluid therefore doubles as a dynamic transport medium and cooling interface.
  • the implementation of a dynamic solid-state micro-sphere suspension liquid transport and control removes the need for cumbersome, complex liquid cooling infrastructures, which otherwise add weight, cost and complexity to the overall system.
  • Another available option is to pump the gain medium outside of the resonator region and then flow the suspension gain medium through the resonator where lasing occurs and pumped stored energy is extracted.
  • FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of an illustrative embodiment of a laser system 50 designed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.
  • the system 50 includes an injection flow mechanism 52 adapted to inject the suspension gain medium 12 into a pump region 32 .
  • the pump source 20 which in this embodiment can be an array of diode lasers driven by an electrical power source 54 , is adapted to pump the gain medium 12 in the pump region 32 .
  • the pumped gain medium 12 ′ then flows to the resonator (extraction region) 14 .
  • the pump region 32 and resonator region 14 may occupy the same space (as in the embodiment of FIG. 1 ), or they may be separate (as shown in the embodiments of FIGS. 3 a and 3 b ).
  • the laser system 50 also includes a fluid injection mechanism 56 for adding fluid 28 to the suspension gain medium 12 (decreasing the density of gain particles) before entering the resonator 14 , and a fluid ejection mechanism 58 for removing fluid 28 from the suspension gain medium 12 (increasing the density of gain particles) after the resonator 14 (before entering the pump region 32 ).
  • the gain medium 12 flows out of the resonator 14 to a cooling and recycling mechanism 60 , which cools the gain medium 12 and returns it to the injection flow mechanism 52 .
  • FIGS. 3 a and 3 b are simplified schematics of an illustrative embodiment of a laser 10 ′ with separate pump and resonator regions designed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.
  • FIG. 3 a shows a side view
  • FIG. 3 b shows an end view.
  • the pump region 32 is formed from a bank of pump modules 34 for containing the laser active doped solid-state micro-sphere suspension 12 as it is pumped by a diode laser array pump bank 20 .
  • the suspension gain medium 12 then flows out of the pump modules 34 into a single resonator chamber 14 , as formed by the walls of a container 30 .
  • the gain medium 12 is flowed through the pump region 32 with controlled velocities for optimized pumping and can also be shaped for optimized absorption efficiency.
  • the flow velocity and micro-sphere density of the gain medium 12 through the resonator extraction volume 14 is then optimized for the most efficient extraction efficiency.
  • the shape of the resonator chamber 14 can also be tailored to geometrically match the laser resonator mode for efficient energy conversion and reduced parasitic losses, and to incorporate image rotating designs for compensation of non-uniform gain depletion and optical distortions (if any) in the laser resonator cross-section, which is along the direction of the flow (this may be less needful if the pump and resonator regions overlap).
  • the resonator region 14 (the active lasing volume) is very thin in the cross-flow direction and has a large aspect ratio (about 10:1) in cross-sectional area to reduce non-uniformities in gain medium density and increase power scalability.
  • the length of the resonator region 14 in the cross-flow direction should be as thin as possible (nominally on the order of about 1 cm) to keep the flow velocity at a reasonable (desired) rate.
  • the longer the cross-flow dimension the faster the flow velocity would need to be in order to achieve a desired transit time.
  • the resonator region 14 has dimensions of approximately 1 cm ⁇ 10 cm ⁇ 100 cm, the smallest dimension being in the cross-flow direction.
  • the dimensions of the resonator region 14 may vary without departing from the scope of the present teachings.
  • the gain medium 12 has a higher density in the pump region 32 for optimized absorption.
  • the fluid injection mechanism 56 adds fluid 28 at a controlled rate to the gain medium 12 for optimized micro-sphere density for high extraction efficiency in the resonator 14 . If desired for performance improvement, it can also be done in the opposite way: first ejection and then injection of the fluid.
  • FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a pump module 34 for a laser 10 ′ designed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.
  • the pump sources 20 apply optical energy 22 to the gain particles 26 .
  • the optical energy 22 is applied in a direction orthogonal to the flow direction.
  • Flow velocity control and density tailoring for optimized absorption efficiency in the pump bank modules 34 is allowed by the orthogonal nature of this illustrative pumping and lasing volume implementation.
  • the density of the micro-sphere suspension is optimized via fluid injection and controlled velocity of flow.
  • the flow velocity is also optimized for most efficient pumping and laser energy extraction in the lasing volume.
  • the flow velocity across the resonator dimension 14 can be optimized by changing the gain medium volume (via the shapes of the pump modules 32 and resonator container 30 ).
  • This remote pumping approach allows for efficient conformal geometrical matching to the pump source layout such that both the absorption efficiency as well as the transit time can be optimized. Because of the decoupled pump geometry (from the laser resonator 14 ), a much relaxed cooling implementation of the diode pump sources 20 can be effected. The mean transit time across the pump radiation field 32 and to and through the resonator 14 should be less than the fluorescence lifetime of the upper laser level (ideally, about 1 ⁇ 5 th the fluorescence lifetime). The capability of allowing almost free reign in the geometrical layout of the pump diode sources 20 allows the implementation of a single master resonator approach. This eliminates the need for amplifier chains that usually reduce efficiency and adds complexities to a laser system.
  • this remote pumping approach may not be as favorable, especially when desired output power is high.
  • the approach where the pumping and resonator regions are overlapped may be preferable.
  • the suspension gain medium flows in this case as well. In general, this approach may lead to very high output powers and one of the limiting factors here is a temperature rise in the gain medium, which depends on flow rate also.
  • the following estimating formula can be used to assess the relation between the mass flow rate and the temperature rise: dm/dt ⁇ P out ( ⁇ h / ⁇ extr )/(C ⁇ T) [3] where dm/dt is the gain medium mass flow rate; ⁇ h and ⁇ extr are heat fraction and lasing extraction efficiency, respectively, relative to the stored lasing power within the gain medium; C is the heat capacity of the suspension; and ⁇ T is the temperature rise.
  • This formula was derived assuming that the thermal time constant of heat transfer from particles to the fluid is short relative to the transport time through the resonator region during lasing.
  • t th ⁇ ( ⁇ C d 2 )/(24 k), where the additional parameter k is thermal conductivity.
  • t th is about 5 ⁇ 10 ⁇ 6 sec for a particle diameter of d ⁇ 10 ⁇ m, which is certainly very small compared to fluorescence life time and possible fluid transport time.
  • This analysis is for the worst case scenario where the host material is glass, which has a poor thermal diffusivity. In the case of any crystal host, the temperature diffusivity time is shorter.
  • FIG. 5 is a top view of the resonator region 14 of a laser 10 ′ designed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.
  • the lasing volume 12 can be shaped via a geometrical shaped resonator chamber 14 (as formed by the walls of the container 30 ) for better matching to resonator modes for optimized energy extraction.
  • An added advantage of the lasing volume shaping is reduction in ASE (amplified spontaneous emission) parasitic losses.
  • FIG. 6 is a side view of a resonator 14 with a flipped resonator design for a laser 10 ′ designed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.
  • the resonator mirror 16 is a folding mirror comprised of a roof prism 70 (coupled with lenses 72 for spreading the laser beam). As shown, the stored energy density of the laser is higher at the top of the resonator chamber 14 and lower towards the bottom.
  • the roof prism 70 is adapted to reflect the laser energy such that a beam from near the top of the resonator 14 is returned near the bottom of the resonator 14 , thus improving the overall uniformity of the laser output from the output coupler 18 .
  • a high optical quality active medium gain and refractive index uniformity
  • gain and refractive index uniformity can be achieved by optimizing the geometry and velocity of the flow, gain particle size, fluid-to-particle refractive index match, etc. This assures the possibility of the generation of a near diffraction limited laser output beam.
  • FIG. 7 is an illustration showing two different optical rays passing through a solid-state suspension medium designed in accordance with the present teachings. Assume that an incident beam, passing along the Z-axis as shown in FIG. 7 , is a plane wave with initial uniform intensity and flat phase. Micro-spheres of diameter “d” have a local gain “g”. A refractive index mismatch between the micro-sphere gain particles and the surrounding transparent liquid is “An”. The relative volume density of micro-spheres in the liquid is “ ⁇ ”.
  • Different optical rays such as rays 1 and 2 as shown in FIG. 7 , may accumulate different gains and different optical paths (that is, different phases) due to the different number of particles they cross while traveling along the Z-axis through the total length of the amplifier “L”.
  • N 1 and N 2 be the numbers of particles the beams 1 and 2 travel through, respectively.
  • M d gd is the exponential gain per one particle.
  • Different gains cause the laser intensities of rays 1 and 2 to be different, thus the amplified overall laser beam intensity will be non-uniform.
  • Non-uniformity is small and does not cause substantial laser beam quality degradation if G 1 and G 2 are about equal, meaning [(N 1 -N 2 )M d ] ⁇ 1.
  • the gain uniformity requirement can be expressed as N _ >> M _ , or ⁇ overscore (N) ⁇ >> ⁇ overscore (M) ⁇ 2 . This leads to an estimate of the minimum average number of particles required along the amplifier length based on a specified gain of the amplifier.
  • ⁇ ⁇ 1 ⁇ 2
  • ⁇ is the laser wavelength
  • the novel laser of the present invention is based on a lasing medium comprised of a plurality of solid-state gain particles (micro-spheres, in an illustrative embodiment) suspended in a fluid host that doubles as the dynamic transport medium and cooling interface.
  • This approach features an inherently high surface to volume ratio (even higher than in a fiber laser) for efficient waste heat extraction.
  • the index-matched fluid suspension allows for efficient transport into a mode-matched laser resonator chamber for optimized efficiency, and takes advantage of fluid-state dynamic heat extraction and exchange mechanisms for waste heat extraction (removing the need for complex jet-impingement coolers for solid-state slabs, which required additional cumbersome liquid handling heat exchange systems).
  • the laser system of the present invention takes full advantage of inherently efficient diode-pumped solid-state laser action with a simple electrical to laser photon conversion laser mechanism.
  • This approach provides for a venue to drastically improve (increase) output power (Watts) per kg so as to allow weapon class lasers to be deployed on a variety of airborne platforms.
  • the use of small gain carrying particles eliminates the need for complex fabrication of large size laser active media.

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US10/915,229 2004-08-10 2004-08-10 Solid-state suspension laser Abandoned US20060039425A1 (en)

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Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US10/915,229 US20060039425A1 (en) 2004-08-10 2004-08-10 Solid-state suspension laser
PCT/US2005/027472 WO2006026037A1 (fr) 2004-08-10 2005-08-03 Laser solide a particules en suspension
EP05809996A EP1779480A1 (fr) 2004-08-10 2005-08-03 Laser solide a particules en suspension
IL180485A IL180485A (en) 2004-08-10 2007-01-01 Solid-state suspension laser with separate excitation and extraction
US11/804,804 US7646796B2 (en) 2004-08-10 2007-05-21 Solid-state suspension laser with separate excitation and extraction
US12/592,232 US8000362B2 (en) 2004-08-10 2009-11-20 Solid-state suspension laser generation utilizing separate excitation and extraction

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US10/915,229 US20060039425A1 (en) 2004-08-10 2004-08-10 Solid-state suspension laser

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US11/804,804 Expired - Fee Related US7646796B2 (en) 2004-08-10 2007-05-21 Solid-state suspension laser with separate excitation and extraction
US12/592,232 Expired - Fee Related US8000362B2 (en) 2004-08-10 2009-11-20 Solid-state suspension laser generation utilizing separate excitation and extraction

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US20050226303A1 (en) * 2004-03-30 2005-10-13 Tsuyoshi Suzudo Solid-state laser pumped by semiconductor laser array
FR2899033A1 (fr) * 2006-03-24 2007-09-28 Thales Sa Dispositif d'amplification laser a refroidissement cryogenique
US20120281787A1 (en) * 2011-05-02 2012-11-08 Yongtao Wang Method and system for i/q mismatch calibration and compensation for wideband communication receivers
CN119209184A (zh) * 2024-10-22 2024-12-27 重庆师范大学 一种端面双通泵浦的悬浮颗粒激光器
CN119297711A (zh) * 2024-10-10 2025-01-10 重庆师范大学 一种基于悬浮颗粒流体激光增益介质的平面波导激光器

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WO2006026037A1 (fr) 2006-03-09
US8000362B2 (en) 2011-08-16
US20070217475A1 (en) 2007-09-20
IL180485A0 (en) 2007-06-03

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