Laser containing a distributed gain medium

摘要

A laser device (10) which may be used as an oscillator or amplifier comprising a chamber (12) having a volume formed therein and a gain medium (14) within the volume. The gain medium (14) comprises a solid-state element containing active laser ion distributed within the volume. A cooling fluid (16) flows about the solid-state element (14) and a semiconductor laser diode (18) provides optical pump radiation into the volume of the laser chamber (12) such that laser emission from the device passes through the gain medium (14) and the fluid (16). The laser device provides the advantages of a solid-state gain medium laser (e.g. diode-pumping, high power density, etc.), but enables operation at higher average power and beam quality than would be achievable from a pure solid-state medium.