Abstract

The results of an experimental investigation of the performance characteristics of a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser utilizing a negative-branch unstable resonator is presented. Measurements indicate that near diffraction-limited beam quality has been attained with a system in the rangefinder/designator energy category. In a performance comparison with a conventional parallel-plane mirror resonator, the unstable resonator was found to produce equally efficient operation with greatly superior beam radiance and tolerance to mirror misalignment.

© 1976 Optical Society of America

Negative-branch unstable resonator with a phase unifying output coupler for high power Nd:YAG lasers

Koji Yasui, Shigenori Yagi, and Masaaki Tanaka
Appl. Opt. 29(9) 1277-1280 (1990)

Modified negative-branch confocal unstable resonator

Thomas Hall, Frank Duschek, Karin M. Grünewald, and Jürgen Handke
Appl. Opt. 45(34) 8777-8780 (2006)

Performance of Nd:YAG lasers in coupled generalized self-filtering and positive-branch unstable resonators

Amir Hossein Farahbod, Bahram Daneshvar, and Akbar Hariri
Appl. Opt. 38(21) 4516-4527 (1999)

Advantages of negative-branch compared with positive-branch one-dimensional unstable resonators

Koji Yasui and Yushi Takenaka
Appl. Opt. 40(21) 3547-3551 (2001)

COIL emission of a modified negative branch confocal unstable resonator

Carsten Pargmann, Thomas Hall, Frank Duschek, Karin Maria Grünewald, and Jürgen Handke
Appl. Opt. 46(31) 7751-7756 (2007)