ND-GLASS BURST LASER WITH KW AVERAGE POWER OUTPUT

Demonstrations of operation of a compact neodymium glass laser with av erage output powers greater than 1 kW for several seconds are reported . The laser is based on the thermal inertia laser (TIL) concept wherei n a neodymium-doped glass rod is pumped uniformly without cooling duri ng a burst mode of laser operation, Design principles for TIL devices and scaling to 100 kW class lasers are discussed. Experimental results for a low repetition-rate proof-of-concept pulsed device (30 J, 0.2 H z) and a high repetition-rate pulsed prototype (40 J, 36 Hz) are prese nted and compared to numerical solutions for the laser rate equations with temperature dependent cross-sections.