| 摘要 |
<p>A laser system and method. The inventive laser includes an annular gain medium (37); a source of pump energy (13,15,17); and an arrangement for concentrating energy from the source (13,15,17) on the gain medium (37). In a more specific implementation, a mechanism is included for rotating the gain medium (37) to effect extraction of pump energy and cooling. In the illustrative embodiment, the pump source is a diode array (13,15,17). Energy from the array (13,15,17) is coupled to the medium (37) via an array of optical fibers (25,27,29). The outputs of the fibers (25,27,29) are input to a concentrator (31) that directs the pump energy onto a pump region of the medium (37). In the best mode, plural disks of gain media (37) are arranged in an offset manner to provide a single resonator architecture. First and second mirrors (48,49) are added to complete the resonator, in accordance with the inventive teachings, a method for pumping and cooling a laser is taught. In the illustrative embodiment, the inventive method includes the steps of providing a gain medium (37); pumping energy into a region of the gain medium (37); moving the medium (37); extracting energy from the region of the medium (37); and cooling region of the medium (37).</p> |
