| 摘要 |
A solid state saturable absorber (SSSA) is formed from a slab of solid state material, such as Cr4+: YAG. Optical distortion caused by the absorption process can be minimized by confining absorption to portions of the solid state slab which can be cooled efficiently. In accordance with an important aspect of the invention, the use of the SSSA in accordance with the present invention allows the repetition rate, pulse width, and energy level of the laser output pulses to be controlled by way of optical pump sources, such as a diode array. The solid state slab material allows for zig-zag propagation and thus, averaging of the thermal gradients caused by absorption, optical pumping and cooling which results in relatively low thermal lensing with virtually no birefringence and therefore allows for passive Q-switching applications in relatively high brightness laser systems. In an alternate embodiment of the invention, a plurality of thin cells are stacked and immersed in an indexed matched cooling fluid in order to increase the absorption length while minimizing optical distortion.
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