Wavefront Correction of High Power Amplified Laser Pulses
R. Bhushan
A laser pulse amplifier system was designed for a kW Nd:YAG diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL). Nd:YAG ceramic discs of different doping concentration were used to amplify the seed pulse. At 1 kW of pump power a reference beam from a He-Ne laser was used to estimate wavefront distortion of the amplified pulse. It was observed that the wavefront distortion without the defocusing component was within a few λ. Amplified pulse wavefront distortion, including the defocusing component, was efficiently compensated with a combination of a spatial filter and a deformable mirror.
Keywords: Nd:YAG laser, Disc laser, diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL), laser amplifier, wavefront compensation