Compact Slab Waveguide Laser

Maxios Laser Corporation proposes to design and build Phase 1, a prototype Yb:YAG waveguide laser capable of generating greater than 10W of cw output power, and to develop a detailed energetic model benchmarking the performance of this cw Yb:YAG systems. The detailed design for a 10 W class, passively Q-switched Yb3+, Cr4+: YAG waveguide laser capable of delivering 1 nsec long pulses at a repetition orate of 10's of kHz. A recent demonstration of high numerical aperture waveguides has provided a basis for a new design approach to compact medium power DPSSL systems. The two principal features of this technology which Maxios Laser plans to exploit in Phase 1 are: (a) A cavity design compatible with using commercially available laser diode arrays as pump beams without employing focusing or coupling optics between the diode bar and the gain medium. (b) The high gain, which a waveguide configuration offers, enables a range of optical resonator designs that are conducive to producing diffraction limited output beams. After constructing a prototype cs laser in Phase 1, we will construct a compact modular passively q-switched laser system in Phase 2.