ALKALI-VAPOR LASER WITH TRANSVERSE PUMPING

摘要

Alkali-vapor laser and related methods of lasing are described herein. In some embodiments, a diode-pumped gas-vapor laser is provided that can be scaled to high power. For example, in one embodiment, a triply-transverse configuration of a diode-pumped-alkali-laser (DPAL) is disclosed in which alkali-buffer gain medium is flowed through an laser chamber (110) (for example, configured as an optical resonator or amplifier) whose optical axis (102) is nominally transverse to the flow direction (104), and whose pump array radiation is propagated into the alkali-buffer gain medium in a direction (106) nominally transverse to both the direction of gain medium flow and the direction of the optical axis.