HIGH-POWER QUASI-CW LASER-PULSES VIA HIGH-GAIN DIODE-PUMPED BULK AMPLIFIERS

By pulse-slicing from a cw laser output and then providing high gain a mplification, one can obtain quasi-cw pulses at powers well in excess of those available from cw lasers. The use of this is demonstrated wit h a cw, additive-pulse-mode-locked Nd:YLF laser. Mode-locked pulse tra ins with an envelope of similar to 10 mu s duration and repetition rat e of 2 kHz are amplified in a X 20 gain, double-pass Nd:YLF bulk ampli fier pumped by a 4 W diode. Amplified power levels allow efficient sin gle-pass frequency doubling in LBO followed by efficient synchronous p umping of all LBO optical parametric oscillator.