| 摘要 |
A technique for operating a diode pumped solid state laser in a continuous-wave (cw) mode using diodes blocks (12) that are individually ope rated in a pulsed mode. For some high power laser applications, it is desirable to prov ide for operation in pulsed and cw modes, but pump diodes are typically designed for efficient operation in only one of these modes. The invention includes a controller (2 0) that pulses the individual diode blocks (12) on and off, but not necessarily in unison. For a pulsed mode of operation, the diodes (12) in an array are pulsed either at the same time, or sub-arrays are pulsed in a temporally interleaved manner for a higher effect ive pulse repetition rate. For the cw mode of operation, the diodes (12) are pulsed se quentially in sub-arrays (A-E), such that at least one sub-array is always energized and t he complete array appears to be providing continuous pumping energy. In one embodiment, the sub-arrays (A-E) are columns of the array. In another embodiment, the sub-ar rays (12') are each associated with a different solid-state gain medium (10'), the gain med ia being optically coupled in a single laser.
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