1. Novel High-Power, High Repetition Rate Laser Diode Pump Modules Suitable for High-Energy Class Laser Facilities
- Author
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Arnim Ginolas, Jörg Körner, Paul Crump, Jürgen Reiter, M. Hübner, Bernd Eppich, Ingo Will, J. Tümmler, M. Lenski, and Joachim Hein
- Subjects
Materials science ,fibre coupled ,02 engineering and technology ,01 natural sciences ,law.invention ,diode laser ,010309 optics ,020210 optoelectronics & photonics ,law ,0103 physical sciences ,0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering ,lcsh:Nuclear and particle physics. Atomic energy. Radioactivity ,Instrumentation ,100 Hz pumping ,Diode ,Laser diode ,business.industry ,Amplifier ,Energy conversion efficiency ,diode stacks ,EuPRAXIA ,Laser ,high duty cycle ,lcsh:QC1-999 ,Duty cycle ,lcsh:QC770-798 ,Optoelectronics ,Continuous wave ,business ,lcsh:Physics ,Pulse-width modulation - Abstract
The latest generation of high-energy-class pulsed laser facilities, under construction or planned, such as EuPRAXIA, require reliable pump sources with high power (many kW), brightness (>, 1 MW/cm2/sr) and electro-optical conversion efficiency (>, 50%). These new facilities will be operated at high repetition rates (around 100 Hz) and only diode lasers are capable of delivering the necessary performance. Commercial (quasi-continuous wave, QCW) diode laser pulse-pump sources are, however, constructed as low-cost passively cooled stacked arrays that are limited either in brightness, efficiency or repetition rate. Commercial continuous wave diode laser pumps constructed using microchannel coolers (as used in high-value industrial machine tools) can fulfil all requirements, but are typically not preferred, due to their cost and complexity and the challenges of preventing cooler degradation. A custom solution is shown here to fill this gap, using advanced diode lasers in a novel passive side-cooling geometry to realize 100 &hellip, 200 Hz pump modules (10%&ndash, 20% duty cycle) that emit peak power of 6 kW at wavelength = 940 nm. The latest performance of these modules is summarized and compared to literature. We show that a brightness >, 1 MW/cm2/sr can be efficiently delivered across a wide range of laser pulse conditions with 10% duty cycle (pulse width: 100 µ, s &hellip, 100 ms &hellip, cw, repetition rate up to 1 kHz). Furthermore, we describe how these pumps have been used to construct and reliably operate (>, 109 pulses without degradation) in high-energy-class regenerative and ring amplifiers at the Max-Born-Institut fü, r Nichtlineare Optik und Kurzzeitspektroskopie (MBI). We also show first results on 100 Hz pumping of cryogenically cooled solid-state Yb:YAG slab amplifiers, as anticipated for use in the EuPRAXIA laser, and note that peak temperature is disproportionately increased, indicating that improved cooling and more detailed studies are needed.
- Published
- 2019