Arbitrary wave-form-pulsed power source for flash-lamp-pumped solid-state lasers

An arbitrary wave-form-pulsed power source for driving pulsed flash lamps e lectrically to pump quasi-continuous-wave Nd:YAG lasers has been developed. It is based on a high-frequency switching converter as opposed to conventi onal pulse-forming network or linear power amplifier circuit-based pulse ge nerators. The system can generate rectangular pulses through the flash lamp with fine adjustment in pulse parameters over a wide range. The system can also generate an arbitrary-shaped pulsed current within a bandwidth of 500 Hz. The design of the system and the results in the form of rectangular- a nd arbitrary-shaped pulsed-current wave forms with different pulse paramete rs are presented. In addition, a burst of consecutive pulses with different arbitrary shapes can also be generated as desired or as programed. The dev eloped pulsed power source offers advantages of more flexibility in control and adjustment of output pulse parameters, arbitrary-shaped pulse generati on, better efficiency, compactness, and higher reliability as compared to t he pulsed power sources based on normal schemes. The electronic system deve loped is of immense value in studying the dependence of flash-lamp impedanc e, spectral output, and energy-transfer efficiency on pulse parameters as w ell as optimization of these parameters for use in various laser material p rocessing applications. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748 (00)00306-3].