Extended saturation analysis and analytical model of diode-pumped alkali lasers

Gordon D. Hager; Glen P. Perram

doi:10.1117/12.842330

17 February 2010 Extended saturation analysis and analytical model of diode-pumped alkali lasers

Gordon D. Hager, Glen P. Perram

Proceedings Volume 7581, High Energy/Average Power Lasers and Intense Beam Applications IV; 75810J (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.842330
Event: SPIE LASE, 2010, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

An analytic model for the cw diode pumped alkali laser is developed by considering the longitudinally averaged number densities of the ground ²S_1/2 and first excited ²P_3/2, and ²P_1/2 states. The pump intensity to reach threshold requires fully bleaching the pump transition and exceeding optical losses, typically about 200 Watts/cm². Slope efficiency depends critically on the fraction of incident photons absorbed and the overlap of pump and resonator modes, approaching the quantum efficiency of 0.95 - 0.98. For marginal cavity transmission losses, peak performance is achieved for low output coupling. For efficient operation, the collisional relaxation between the two upper levels should be fast to prevent bottlenecking. By assuming a statistical distribution between the upper two levels, the limiting analytic solution for the quasitwo level system is achieved. For properly designed gain conditions, the quasi two level solution is usually achievable and represents ideal performance.

Citation Download Citation

Gordon D. Hager and Glen P. Perram "Extended saturation analysis and analytical model of diode-pumped alkali lasers", Proc. SPIE 7581, High Energy/Average Power Lasers and Intense Beam Applications IV, 75810J (17 February 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.842330

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