Appl. Phys.

B 58, 365-372 (1994)

Applied Physics B and Optics ,,s,s

Springer-Verlag 1994

Scalable Concept for Diode-Pumped High-Power Solid-State Lasers

A. Giesen 1, H. HiigeP, A. Voss 1, K. Wittig 1, U. Brauch 2, H. Opower 2
1 Universitfit Stuttgart, Institut fiir Strahlwerkzeuge, Pfaffenwaldring 43, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany (Tel.: + 49-711/685-6846, Fax: + 49-711/685-6842) 2 Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fiJr Luft- und Raumfahrt, Institut ftir Technische Physik, Pfaffenwaldring 38-40, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany (Tel. : + 49-711/6862-770, Fax: + 49-711/6862-788) Received 2 December 1993/Accepted 31 January 1994

Abstract. A new, scalable concept for diode-pumped high-power solid-state lasers is presented. The basic idea of our approach is a very thin laser crystal disc with one face mounted on a heat sink. This allows very high pump power densities without high temperature rises within the crystal. Together with a flat-top pump-beam profile this geometry leads to an almost homogeneous and onedimensional heat flux perpendicular to the surface. This design dramatically reduces thermal distortions compared to conventional cooling schemes and is particularly suited for quasi-three-level systems which need high pump power densities. Starting from the results obtained with a Ti:Sapphire-pumped Y b : Y A G laser at various temperatures, the design was proved by operating a diode-pumped Y b : Y A G laser with an output power of 4.4 W and a maximum slope efficiency of 68%. From these first results we predict an exctracted cw power of 100 W at 300 K (140 W at 200 K) with high beam quality from a single longitudinally pumped Y b : Y A G crystal with an active volume of 2 mmL Compact diode-pumped solid-state lasers in the kilowatt range seem to be possible by increasing the pump-beam diameter and/or by using several crystal discs. PACS: 42.55.Rz

than the traditional Nd-doped systems. The efficient room temperature operation of an InGaAs diode-pumped Yb: YAG laser with an output power of 24 mW was first presented in [1]. Other materials, like the fluoroapatites, seem also to be good hosts for the Yb 3+ ion [2], yet Y b : Y A G exhibits a complete set of properties favourable for high-power diode-pumping [3]: - very low quantum defect (91% quantum efficiency), - very low fractional heating (< 11%), very high slope efficiency (72% at 300 K), - broad absorption bands (about 10 nm at 940 nm), high doping levels possible without quenching (> 20 %), no excited-state absorption or upconversion, - pump wavelength 940 nm (or 970 nm) enables the use of very reliable InGaAs diodes, high thermal conductivity and tensile strength of the host material. Properties of Y b : Y A G of special interest for pulsed applications are: - long radiative lifetime of the upper laser level (1.2 ms), broad emission bands (1 ps pulses possible), low emission cross-section (high energies can be stored). The only severe disadvantage of the material is the thermal population of the lower laser level (612 cm-1 above ground level) which leads to the requirement of high pump-power densities (threshold > 1.5 kW/cm 2 at 300 K). Efficient operation can be obtained with pumppower densities in the range of 10 kW/cm 2. Such values can be reached with high-power laser diodes. In general, the resulting high heat-flow density within the crystal would result in problems like thermal lensing and efficiency reduction due to high temperatures and the subsequent increase of the lower-level population. Therefore, the goal was to reduce the thermal problems and to realize a design which allows the extraction of high output power with minimized thermal distortion. The configuration, as finally found, is basically independent of the laser material and can also be used with Nd,

The traditional cooling concepts and crystal geometries, i.e. rods and slabs with heat flow transversal to the beam axis, are not adequate for diode-pumped high-power solid-state lasers with high efficiency and high beam quality at the same time. The performance and efficiency losses due to thermal lensing and temperature rise are very detrimental (up to loss of function) for quasi-threelevel systems, which allow the highest power efficiencies but require high pump-power densities. In fact, it turned out that especially Yb:YAG, a quasi-three-level system, is one of the most promising laser-active materials more suitable for diode-pumping

366 Tm and other laser ions as well as with different host materials. Operation of the crystal below room temperature can reduce the threshold and increase the efficiency, as demonstrated in the next section with a Ti: Sapphire-laserpumped Yb: Y A G laser.
Q.

A. Giesen
240- 0 - 0 200160116K . ~

, H , 119K A--A 218K

~
/,4//
=~..-'//A" .~

297K

1208o40-

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1 Temperature Dependence of the Laser Properties of Yb: YAG

Since the paper by Lacovara et al. [1] gave only the laser performance at 300 K and 80 K, an experiment was started to determine the laser parameters threshold and efficiency for crystal temperatures between 100 K and 340 K. A longitudinal pumping scheme with an Ar laser-pumped Ti: Sapphire laser was chosen because of its excellent beam quality, its narrow tunable linewidth and the good overlap between pump beam and TEMoo laser mode, which gives the best performance possible. The experimental setup is shown in Fig. 1. The expanded Ti : Sapphire laser (beam diameter approximately 10 mm) is focussed with a focal length of about 150 mm onto the front side of the laser crystal. The front side has a high transmission for the pump wavelength ( T = 97%) and high reflectivity (R=99.8%) for the laser light at 1030 nm. The back side is Anti-Reflection (AR) coated for both wavelengths (R < 0.12%). The front side of the crystal and the concave output mirror (r = 18 mm) form a hemispherical resonator. The concave mirror is partially reflective for the laser light (R = 90% or 95%) and High-Reflection (HR) coated for the pump wavelength. This coating design leads to a double pass of the pump light within the crystal which, for an optimized crystal length, gives a quite homogeneous pump-power density within the crystal. The Glan polarizer together with the quarter-wave plate forms an optical diode. The wedge and the prisms allow to measure the pump power as well as the laser power on both sides of the resonator. The power meters used are a Coherent Labmaster with a thermoelectric LM-10 head and a Laser Precision ratio-

O~ -0

~ '

'

'

'

'

'

50

100

150

200

250

300

Absorbed power [mW] Fig. 2. Output power of the Ti : Sapphire laser-pumped Yb : YAG laser at 1030 nm vs the absorbed pump-power at 969 nm for various temperatures with an output coupler reflectivityof 90%
0.90 -- -- -- -- _
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-

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-0

Temperature [K] Fig. 3. Slope efficiencyand extrapolated threshold for the absorbed pump-power of the Ti: Sapphire-laser-pumped Yb:YAG laser vs temperature for the pump wavelengths 940 nm and 969 nm, respectively, with an output coupler reftectivityof 90%

~J
i

Glan polarizer

o/~.r~ reflected pump and ~ ' ~ ~ backward output power / / / output coupler ~ " / PR 1030 nm transm~ttea 4..~r, ~

!!
[

~, -

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.....

Yb:YAG HR 940 nm
crystal I
II

forward output power

pump and

. (

/ ~

wedge

focusing optics

~ AR1030nm AR 940 nm

forward pump power

HR1030nm AR 940 nm

Fig. 1. Experimental setup of the Ti:Sapphire-laser-pumped Y b : Y A G laser (cryostat not shown)

meter with pyroelectric heads as well as calibrated silicon photodiodes. The Y b : Y A G crystal with the best performance was a 0.7-mm-thick crystal with a doping level of about 19 at. %. The complete resonator was placed in a vacuum cryostat. The crystal was mounted on a liquid-nitrogen dewar; a heating foil between dewar and crystal and the use of different cooling liquids allowed to vary the temperature between 100 K and 340 K. A typical plot of the laser output power at 1030 nm versus the absorbed pump power for various temperatures is shown in Fig. 2. The slope efficiency and extrapolated threshold (absorbed pump power) for the pump wavelengths of 969 nm and 940 nm are given in Fig. 3. Between 100 K and 210 K the slope efficiencies are 85% for 969 nm and 83% for 940 nm, respectively, and decrease above 210 K. At room temperature the slope efficiency is 72% for both pump wavelengths. The threshold increases approximately quadratically with temperature; at room temperature the extrapolated

Scalable Concept for Diode-Pumped High-Power Solid-State Lasers threshold is 40 roW, the real threshold 25 mW. The highest efficiency at 100 K is 83 % based on the absorbed pump power and 75% based on the total pump-laser power. The numbers for 300 K are 61% and 55%, respectively. With a 19%-doped crystal of 2 mm thickness, room temperature laser operation at two wavelengths, 1031 nm or 1049 nm, depending on the resonator length, was achieved with comparable output power.levels. Since the emission cross-section at 1049 nm is very low compared to the value at 1031 nm, this result can only be explained by taking into account the strong reabsorption at 1031 nm in the parts of the crystal which are pumped with power densities below threshold. This occurs due to the fact that the crystal is much thicker than its absorption length. - longitudinally pumping of the crystal, multiple pass of pump light within the crystal, - use of fiber-coupled diode lasers.

367

The Y b : Y A G being a quasi-three-level system at room temperature needs a very high pump-power density in order to be sufficiently above the laser threshold which is given by the thermal population of the lower la,cr Icxel fi (4% at 300 K) and by the lifetime r of the upper lcvcl (1.2 ms). An absorption rate nab~ = f , / r of about 40 photons per second is required for each Yb 3+ ion. Taking into account the absorption cross-section Cr,b of s the ions of 7 x 10 -21 cm 2, this leads to a local threshold pump power density Ith of 1.5 kW/cm 2 (i.e. 4% of the pump saturation density --sat/abs'~]" For the above quantities the following relation with the pump photon energy hvp holds:

2 Diode-Pumped

Yb: YAG

Laser

Ith

nabshvp - fa
-

hvp
Gab s " 27

"labs .
~

(1)

Gab s

Having shown the excellent efficiency of a longitudinally Ti:Sapphire-pumped Y b : Y A G laser, a concept for a diode-pumped laser has to be found that would allow the scale-up to high powers while maintaining the benefits of the longitudinally pumped configuration. Both classical concepts, rod geometry and slab geometry, are not appropriate for a high average power Y b : Y A G laser system. First of all, the typical dimensions of several millimeters in each direction lead to long distances between heat source and heat sink. Taking into account the required high pump-power density, the resulting temperature difference between the core and the cooled surface is in the range of several 100 K, much too high to achieve efficient operation of the quasi-three-level system. Starting from a classical rod, this problem can be solved by shrinking one of the dimensions of the rod, either the diameter or the length. From the rod with reduced diameter, which may be considered to be a fiber, the heat can be removed effectively in radial direction, but the heat flux remains perpendicular to the optical axis giving rise to strong thermal lensing, which is the second detrimental aspect common to both classical geometies. Reducing the doping level and increasing the length as well as utilizing the light-guiding effect, an efficient fiber laser can be constructed. This design hampers from the lack of availability of single-mode crystalline Yb:YAGfibers and from the problems like nonlinear effects and optical damage occuring at high power levels. So the second way to shrink the rod was preferred, resulting in a thin disc which can be effectively cooled in axial direction. Using the cooled surface as mirror for the pump beam and the laser beam as well gives a type of ,,active mirror" with extremely low optical distortion. The basic ideas and elements incorporated in the concept, which can be used with all other types of diodepumped high-power solid-state lasers with short absorption length as well, are: - very thin laser disc, thermal gradient collinear to the laser beam,

For efficient laser operation the averaged pump-power density within the laser-active volume has to exceed this value by at least a factor of five. To achieve such high power densities multiple passes of the pump beam through the active volume can be used. With this technique effective pump-power densities higher than those delivered directly by the pump source can be obtained within the crystal. Such a multipass also allows the reduction of the doping level (or the crystal thickness) while maintaining a high absorption of the pump-power within the crystal. Therefore, the threshold power which is determined by the number of pumped ions can be strongly reduced. Combining the described multipass of the pump light with a very thin face-cooled crystal disc allows to fulfil both requirements, high pump-power density as well as small temperature rises, simultaneously. If the disc is mounted directly onto a heat sink (in the actual realization a cooled copper disc) with one of the faces, the thermal gradient in the crystal is collinear to the laser beam. If, in addition, the diameter of the pump beam (near flat-top) is larger than the thickness of the crystal the heat flux can be considered to be one-dimensional and directed to the heat sink. This results in a homogeneous temperature and stress profile within the crystal minimizing thermal lensing and thermally induced birefringence. Longitudinal pumping is a prerequisite for an efficient laser with nearly diffraction-limited beam quality because it allows a good overlap between the pump volume and the Gaussian mode volume of the laser resonator. Fiber-coupling of the laser diodes has several advantages. First of all, the power density at the end of a fiber bundle can be much higher than for stacked laser arrays. This is essential for an Yb:YAG-laser system but gives advantages also for other solid-state laser systems. Second, there is a much higher degree of freedom in designing the laser head. The laser head itself can be built much smaller with the diodes in a remote place and with only low effort for cooling the laser crystal; the control,

368 protection, and cooling of the laser diodes is easier if they are incorporated in the power supply. Finally, the laser design is independent of design changes of the diode lasers. The implications of this concept for scaling to high power levels will be discussed in Sect. 3.

A. Giesen 1.6 A) of 24 x 0.7 W = 16.8 W a power of about 12 W could be imaged onto the crystal within a diameter of 0.95 mm. The absorption in the 9 at.% doped Y b : Y A G disc (2 mm diameter, 0.3 mm thickness) was 40% for the double pass and about 56% for the quadrupel pass at optimum diode temperature. The plane of the V-shaped resonator was orthogonal to the pump plane. The H R coated back side of the laser crystal served as folding mirror. The output coupler was flat, the radius of curvature of the H R mirror was 30 cm. The rear side of the active mirror was thermally contacted to a water cooled copper finger, using an indium foil to minimize the thermal resistance.

2.1 Experimental Setup

As pump-light sources 24 Siemens 1 W InGaAs laser diodes, each coupled into a 125/140 ~tm (core/cladding, N.A. 0.37) fiber, were used. At 25 C the forward voltage is 2.05 V at 1.6 A, the series resistance 0.24 f2, and the threshold current 0.35 A. The slope efficiency (fiber output versus current input) is 0.6 W/A, the maximum output power 1.5 W at 2.8 A. The full width of the laser emission is 4-5 nm, the maximum is at 9422 nm (at 0 C, 2.8 A) with a temperature coefficient of 0.32 nm/K or 5.8 nm/A. Because of the absorption linewidth of about 10 nm an individual temperature control was not necessary, and all diodes were mounted on the same liquid-cooled copper heat sink which had a temperature of about 11 C up to 1.6 A and about 0 C (cooling unit with closed acetone cycle), 8 K above the optimum temperature, for 2.8 A. The fibers were tied into a bundle with 0.8 mm diameter. The cleaved fiber ends, which were adjusted nearly in a plane, were imaged with two uncoated aspheric condensor lenses onto the laser crystal under an angle of 20 (Fig. 4). The crystal was AR coated on the front side and H R coated on the back side. The part of pumplight not absorbed when passing twice the laser crystal was collected by an A R coated spherical lens, imaged onto a plane mirror and then reflected back onto the crystal for a third and fourth pass. Starting from a fiber output (at
oufpuf coupler end HR mirror

2.2 Results
The results for various reflectivities of the output coupler are shown in Fig. 5. The resonator length was 150 mm (distance crystal to output coupler 65 mm) which gave maximum output power. The maximum diode current used for these measurements was 1.6 A. Assuming fiat-top profiles for the pump radiation and the laser beam, a plot of the laser output power versus the absorbed pump power should give a straight line with a slope r/s1starting at a threshold pump power Pa similar to an ideal four-level system. The slope efficiency r/~l is as in the four-level case - the product of the internal efficiency/~intand the outcoupling efficiency in VR/ln (L I/R), with R being the reftectivity of the outcoupling mirror and L the cavity loss factor. There are two contributions to the threshold: Pth = P4 + P3, namely, P c = -/sarA and (2)

bund~
fiber

(')
994

lnL+-lnR 2

(3)

/
/
:aspheric Lenses coling pump I oufpuf
,m Q) 0 C~ 1.0
m

/o
2.0
Mirror r e f l e c t i v i t i e s
o

1.5

v
o

98.4 %
9+.1+

91.8 % 84.0 % 75.4 %

/+. /
v / v / ~'' v, # /

,/;../o
z~

/%
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foil

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/.;/,~ 4/
.~ /
..~"/Y] D *

.."
, .... 6 7 [W]

z~/ ZX
." 5 pump

" /

..9~. D" A /
0.0

Absorbed

power

Fig. 4. Schematic setup of the diode-pumped Yb:YAG laser. The resonator plane is orthogonal to the pump plane (viewingdirection slightly out of resonator plane)

Fig. 5. Output power vs absorbed pump-power of the diodepumped Yb:YAG laser for various output coupler reflectivitesat 285 K

Scalable Concept for Diode-PumpedHigh-PowerSolid-StateLasers . A P3 = &atG~m~ Vna with

hl:p
,,~, = ---.
~D

369

(4)
5

d d d d

= = = =

73 120 165 188

mm mm mm mm

(5)

O'emT

g
O3

P4 is - similar to the four-level case - due to the cavity losses that have to be overcome by the gain. P3 has its origin in the occupation of the lower laser level. In (3), (4), and (5) hvp is the energy of a pump photon, A the laser-mode cross-section area, V the laser mode volume within the crystal, Gem the emission cross-section (1.8 x 10 -2o cm2), ~ the fluorescence lifetime, and nd the concentration of Yb 3+ ions. f, (0.042 at 300 K) and fb (0.80 at 300 K) give the thermal population of the lower and of the upper laser level, respectively ( ~ f = 1 for the upper and lower manifold [4]). Assuming a more realistic resonator mode (e.g. Gaussian profile) gives deviations from the straight line near the threshold that are much stronger in the quasithree-level case [4]. Nevertheless - at least for the highreflectivity output couplers - it is possible to obtain an extrapolated threshold and a slope efficiency from the measured datapoints twice or more above threshold. Plotting the extrapolated threshold powers Pth versus the outcoupling factor - i n R (see Fig. 6) should again give a straight line with a slope Is,tA/2 of about 23 W (with an effective pump-beam diameter of 0.85 ram), the experimental result is only 12.3 W. At room temperature the threshold for zero output coupling is governed by the three-level component P3 which can be calculated from (3) to be about 1.8 W; the value obtained from Fig. 6 is 2.3 W, including the resonator losses. From the dependence of the slope efficiency r/s~on the output coupling it is possible to estimate the internal efficiency flint and the resonator losses In L. Using the relation:

2~ I

......... .%............ ......... "

o o.o

0.5
Loser

I .O
power

I .5
[W]

2.0

Fig. 7. Beam quality M 2 = I/K vs laser output-power of the diode-

pumped Yb: YAG laser for variouscrystal-outputcouplerdistances d and a fixed crystal end-mirror distance of 65 mm at 285 K

l n L = l n R ( r/int - 1 )
\r/sl

(6)

(v / / / / / /

0 rg ID L. F/

4/

/ /

iii /

3
/

losses in L of 0.20% + 0.02% and an internal efficiency of 72% can be estimated. The results obtained with the 91.8, 84.0, and 75.4% output couplers have not been used because of the problematic extrapolation close to threshold. With the optimal output coupler (R=98.4%) an output power of 2.2 W has been obtained at an absorbed power of 6.8 W; the highest external slope efficiency achieved is about 68% (with R = 96.1%). Operating the diodes at 2.8 A resulted in doubling of the laser output power to 4.4 W. This was less than what would have been expected from the slope efficiency due to the fact that the diodes could be operated only at 0 C instead of the required - 8 C. The beam quality was measured with a Coherent Mode Master for various pump powers and resonator configurations (see Fig. 7). The laser with the resonator optimized for maximum output power (1= 65 m m + 73 mm) had a M 2 of 3.3 at 1.8 W of output power. A somewhat longer resonator (/= 65 mm + 120 mm) gave, at the same pump power, a slightly reduced laser power of 1.7 W at a M 2 of 1.8. A further increase in resonator length resulted in a M 2 below 1.5 with an output power reduction of only 15 %. Figure 7 shows also the increase in beam quality obtained by reducing the pump-power. The birefringence of the active mirror was virtually zero, which has been demonstrated by inserting a Brewster plate into the resonator; merely a reduction in laser power of a few percent was observed.

3 Scalability
0.2 -In R 0.3

0.0

o.1

Fig.

6. Extrapolated threshold for the absorbed pump-power vs the outcouplingfactor-!n R of the diode-pumpedYb: YAG laser at 285 K

The presented design of the diode-pumped laser can be scaled up by simply increasing the pump-beam diameter at a constant pump-power density. Due to the basically one-dimensional heat flow this can be done without in-

370
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0.2 radius (nml) 0.6 0.8

A. Giesen

- - T - - V -

--->

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a x i s 0.2 0.I

0.3

0,2

radius

(mm)

0.6

I
0.0 a X i s 0,I
g [

0.8 ->

N=~_==
~m '

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iA___

|+
0.2

....

(=n)

[] B

0.3

|2;
Fig. 8a-e. Cross-sectional views
0.0 0.2
radius

(n'crt)

0.6

0.8

0.0

a x i 0.i

~-

1.5E+007

~.

~.~

(r~a)
0,2

9E4007 ~ / / ~ ~.~E.O0"/~ . 2.9E+007 .--..~

o..i

of the calculated temperature distribution (a, 45 K maximum temperature difference), the mechanical deformation (b), max. value 0.18 ~lm and the distribution of the absolute stress values (e, peak value 5 x 107 Pa) of an Yb: YAG crystal 0.3 mm thick with 1.6 mm diameter. The pump-power of 15 W is absorbed within the central 0.8 mm diameter and produces 2.25 W of heat (15% fractional heating). The upper face is cooled to 293 K (20 C)

creasing the temperature differences inside the crystal. The low thermal lensing effect even tends to decrease with increasing pump-beam diameter. As numerical simulations show, the mechanical stress inside the crystal grows only slightly with an increase in diameter. Figure 8 shows the cross-section of the calculated temperature and stress distribution as well as the mechanical deformation of a 0.3 mm thick Yb: YAG-crystal of 1.6 mm diameter pumped in a central region of 0.8 m m diameter with an absorbed power of 15 W and an assumed fractional heating of 15 %. The peak mechanical stress is only about 25 % of the fracture limit. Furthermore, the highest stress occurs in a region of compression in the bulk of the crystal, which is much less critical than in the case of transversal cooling, where the peak tensile stress is at the surface of the rod or slab. In Fig. 9. the same parameters are used except the pumpbeam and crystal diameter which are increased by a factor of four. The absorbed power is, due to a constant pump-power density, increased by a factor of 16 (240 W). The increase in the maximum temperature is due to the two-dimen-

sional part of the heat-flow, which is significant for the small pump-beam diameter only. The maximum stress increases by only about 40%, whereas the diameter increases by a factor of four and the power by a factor of 16. F r o m these calculations it can be concluded that the increase in pump-power as well as output power per crystal is in fact not primarily limited by thermally induced stress but by the problem to design an uncritical laser resonator (e.g. near hemi-confocal) with a low Fresnel number. This problem can be avoided by the use of a telescopic resonator, which, on the other hand, increases resonator losses and beam-power density Compared to the setup described in Sect. 2, the pumpbeam delivery can be further improved by the use of spherical mirrors for imaging the pump-beam. As sketched in Fig. 10, the pump-beam can be redirected onto the crystal several times. Figure 11 shows an 8-fold multipass of the pump-beam using four spherical mirrors and one flat mirror aside the crystal. This high number of passes has the advantages described in Sect. 2:

Scalable Concept for Diode-Pumped High-Power Solid-State Lasers

radius (ram) 0.0 O.S 2.4 3.2

371

0,0

a
i S

0.i
0.2

1
i

(ram)

o, 3 +
a

8o
0.0 0.8

7o 6o'; 4o
radius

(~)

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3,2

a x i S

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ooI

0.2

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0 0 i 0.8 I I zadius I (r0za) t 2.4 I ! 3.2 >

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,.

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~ .5E+007 ------- 1,5E+007 ----------- 1.5E+007 - -

x i
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Fig. 9a-e. Cross-sectionalviews of the calculated temperature distribution (a, 62 K maximum temperature difference),the mechanical deformation (b, max. value 3.2 gin), and the distribution of the absolute stress values (e, peak value 7 107 Pa) of an Yb: YAG crystal 0.3 mm thick with 6.4 mm diameter. The pump-power of 240 W is absorbed within the central 3.2 mm diameter and produces 36 W of heat (15 %fractional heating). The upper face is cooled to 293 K (20 C)

lower threshold power due to the smaller number of pumped ions as well as due to the increased effective pump-power density within the crystal. An appropriate concept to scale the laser output power beyond 100 W would be a folded resonator design with multiple active mirrors. For example, with two linear arrays of active mirrors a zig-zag resonator can be constructed (Fig. 12). The low optical distortion of the longitudinally cooled discs allows the use of several laser crystals without sacrificing the power tuning range or the beam quality. For high-power applications the cooling of the laser crystals to about 200 K is an effective method to reduce the required laser-diode power and the electrical power

consumption with comparatively small additional costs for the cooling equipment. Extrapolations from the measurements described in Sect. 1 indicate a possible increase in optical-to-optical efficiciency from about 50 % at room temperature to at least 70% at 200 K. This means a reduction of the required fiber-output pump-power of about 570 W for a 1 kW laser. With an electrical-to-optical efficiency of 30% for the laser diodes, the electrical power consumption is reduced by about 1900 W. This has to be compared with the 160 W o f heat which must be removed from the crystals at 200 K (assuming 11% fractional heating). A typical cooling unit with 30% efficiency needs 470 W to maintain the cooling. The power saving is about 1400 W compared to the uncooled (am-

372

A, Giesen

mirror for pumpradi~fion

fiber

heafsinks :oupLer

bundle

~ ~ //.i ~;~~resono~o~ irpors

//.i

crys#~Ls~

=crysfaLs

12
/

rror

10

crysi'aL

jsphericak
/\z/ ",'~J imaging

Fig. 10. Optimized pumping scheme with spherical imaging mirrors. The fiber bundle is imaged onto the crystal by the first mirror and the part of the beam reflected from the crystal is redirected onto the crystal by the second mirror Fig. 11. Three-dimensional view of a pumping scheme with eightfold pass of the pump-beam through the crystal. The flat mirror beneath the crystal together with two additional imaging mirrors allows to multiply the number of passes by a factor of two compared to the simple setup in Fig. 10
- i /J '/I

11 fiber b u n d l e /

Fig. 12. Multiple active mirror zig-zag resonator for output powers in the kW range. For the sake of stability and simplicity several crystals are mounted on the same heat sink. The pump optics are not shown

bient water cooling not mentioned) version. The costs for the saved diodes (570 W) are much higher than the costs for the cooling unit. These calculations show that, in the case of Yb:YAG, cooling of the laser to low temperatures (200 K) makes sense in terms of economy.
4 Conclusions

cost reductions, especially at output powers above 100 W. Similar considerations can be made for other diode-pumped high-power solid-state lasers (e.g. Nddoped or other Yb-doped materials).
Acknowledgements. This work was supported by the Bundesministerium fiir Forschung und Technologie under Contract 13 N 6093. We wish to thank M. Huonker and R. Greschner for the fruitful discussions and their engagement.

A scalable concept for diode-pumped high-power solidstate lasers with some unique features has been proposed. Combining longitudinal cooling with fiber-coupled pump-power delivery and multipass pumping enables the highly effective operation of Yb:YAG at high outputpower and with high beam quality. The properties of Yb:YAG allow extremely high efficiencies, but only at high pump-power densities. The cooling concept presented is able to handle the high heat-flow densities with small temperature rises and low thermal lensing effects. Operation of Yb:YAG at temperatures around 200 K results in an even higher efficiency as well as in system

References
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