Improvement of slab-laser beam divergence by using an off-axis unstable–stable resonator

15 January 1990

journal article
Published by Optica Publishing Group in Optics Letters

Vol. 15 (2) , 121-123
https://doi.org/10.1364/ol.15.000121

Abstract

Reduction of the beam divergence of a solid-state slab-geometry laser by using an off-axis unstable–stable resonator is described. The resonator acts as an off-axis negative-branch unstable resonator in the slab-width direction. This resonator configuration yields a small beam divergence of 2.5 mrad in the unstable-resonator direction at an average output power of 120 W. This improvement in beam quality is achieved without appreciable loss of efficiency.

Keywords

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