ELECTRO-OPTICALLY Q-SWITCHED MICROCHIP LASERS

MICROCHIP LASERS HOLD THE POTENTIAL FOR LOW COST, MASS PRODUCIBLE, SINGLE FREQUENCY SOURCES WHICH CAN BE CONFIGURED INTO LINEAR AND TWO DIMENSIONAL ARRAYS. LASER POWER RESEARCH HAS DEVISED A METHOD BY WHICH MICROCHIP LASERS MAY BE Q-SWITCHED TO PRODUCE SUBNANOSECOND, KILOWATT PEAK POWER PULSES. AT THIS POWER LEVEL, NONLINEAR FREQUENCY CONVERSION TECHNIQUES CAN BE QUITE EFFICIENT, THUS OFFERING AN ALTERNATIVE TO SEMICONDUCTOR LASER SOURCES IN THE VISIBLE AND NEAR-UV REGION OF THE SPECTRUM. IN CONTRAST TO PREVIOUS Q-SWITCH MICROCHIP LASERS, THE LPR DESIGN RELIES ON THE ELECTRO-OPTIC EFFECT FOR FAST SWITCHING OF THE CAVITY. A FIELD APPLIED TO AN ELECTRO-OPTIC ETALON USED AS THE OUTPUT CAVITY MIRROR IS USED TO RAPIDLY SHIFT THE RESONANCE FREQUENCIES OF THE ETALON, THEREBY MODULATING THE EFFECTIVE REFLECTIVITY OF THE OUTPUT CAVITY MIRROR. BONDING THE ETALON DIRECTLY TO THE MICROCHIP GAIN MEDIUM RESULTS IN A FULLY INTEGRATED UNIT, THE DESIGN OF WHICH IS AMENABLE TO EXPANSION INTO ONE AND TWO DIMENSIONAL ARRAYS. THE PROPOSED PHASE I PROGRAM INCLUDES A PROOF-OF-PRINCIPLE EXPERIMENT DESIGNED TO GENERATE 100-200 PICOSECOND PULSES FROM AN INTEGRATED, QSWITCHED ND:YAG MICROCHIP LASER, AS WELL AS A MATERIALS SURVEY TO IDENTIFY SUITABLE MATERIALS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF DIODE PUMPED MICROCHIP SOURCES. SUCCESSFUL DEMONSTRATION OF THE PROPOSED MICROCHIP LASER SKILL POINT THE WAY TOWARDS THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMPACT, INEXPENSIVE SOURCES IN THE VISIBLE AND NEAR UV. SUCH SOURCES HAVE TREMENDOUS COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL IN SUCH AREAS AS OPTICAL DISK STORAGE AND, IN THE FORM OF ARRAYS, FOR PARALLEL OPTICAL PROCESSING. THE COMPACTNESS AND RUGGEDNESS OF THE DEVICES IS ATTRACTIVE FOR MILITARY SYSTEMS.