2BIIMUKETSUGOOMOCHIITAHIKARIENERUGIINOZOFUKUHOHOOYOBIDOHOHOOMOCHIITAHIKARIENERUGIIZOFUKUSOCHI

摘要

A diffraction limited working beam (14) at a given frequency is amplified without degrading its diffraction limited quality by diverting a minor portion of the beam as a probe beam, and amplifying the remaining portion of the working beam (14) with a high power pump beam (12) at a different wavelength. The amplification takes place in a host medium (10, 28) that has a rare earth dopant with an energy transition from the pump beam's wavelength to the wavelength of the working beam. The resulting amplified working beam is non-diffraction limited. The probe beam is frequency modulated and coupled with the amplified working beam in a second host medium (22) that also has a rare earth dopant. Energy is transferred from the amplified working beam to the modulated probe beam through a resonant energy transfer in the second host medium (22), producing an amplified output beam at the working beam frequency that retains the diffraction limited quality of the probe beam.