LASER COOLING APPARATUS AND METHOD

摘要

A laser cooling apparatus and method. Generally, the inventive apparatus includes a mechanism for transporting sensible thermal energy from a solid state laser and for communicating waste fluorescent radiation therefrom as well. In the illustrative embodiment, the apparatus includes an optically transparent manifold (10) with an inlet port (12), an exhaust port (19) and a plurality of spray nozzles (16) therebetween adapted to direct a cooling fluid on the laser medium (20) of a laser (30). In addition, the optically transparent manifold (10) is used to permit waste fluorescent radiation to escape the confines of the laser and cooling system means such that said fluorescent radiation may be optically directed to an external heat sink such as free space.