A Miniaturized High Power Solid-State Laser System Using a Novel Laser Crystal

Solid-state lasers present the most promising approach to achieve high power laser beams with high efficiency, high reliability, and great beam quality, which would be critical for many defense applications including airborne and space borne ladars, lidars, and weapon guidance systems. In this Phase II program, Crystal Research, Inc. (CRI) proposes a miniaturized high power all-solid-state laser that uses a novel laser crystal, efficient pumping and resonator design. This laser crystal has shown a very large stimulated emission cross section and also a very strong and broad absorption band around 880nm to facilitate direct pumping, which is not effective in conventional laser crystals Nd:YAG and Nd:YVO4. Unlike high-gain laser crystal Nd:YVO4, the thermal conductivity of our novel crystal is about 3 times as high and comparable to that of Nd:YAG. The proposed laser would present a breakthrough in practical airborne laser applications for its high efficiency, high reliability, low thermal management requirement and compactness. The proposed laser output power can be scaled to 200W without using any water-cooling system. We will deliver a fully packaged working prototype laser to the funding agency by the end of Phase II program.