Indirectly LED-pumped Nd:glass: potential for high energy laser facilities
Flashlamp-pumped Nd:glass is used as a power amplifier in many high energy laser facilities. Despite the problems of this old technology, flashlamps are still being considered for the next generation of lasers as diode laser pumping is far from being ready. This work presents an alternative for pumping high energy lasers: LEDs combined with luminescence concentrators. Using a pump head consisting of a green-yellow Ce:LuAG luminescent concentrator pumped by 2240 LEDs, we demonstrate a Nd:glass laser oscillator producing 25 mJ at 1053 nm for an absorbed pump energy of 138 mJ. The small signal gain reaches 1.25 in a single pass despite the short length of the Nd:glass rod (20 mm). These results reveal the potential of indirect LED pumping for Nd:glass amplifiers in high energy lasers.
Authors
- Maxime Nourry-Martin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6345-2624)
- Patrick Georges (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6822-2775)
- Frédéric Druon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5955-2473)
- L. Meignien (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-2891-8065)
- P. Audebert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1330-3946)
- François Balembois (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4098-7105)
- Catherine Le Blanc (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-3185-4690)
- Nicolas Fermon
Institutions
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR)
- Université Paris-Saclay (FR)
- Sorbonne Université (FR)
- Laboratoire pour l'Utilisation des Lasers Intenses (FR)
- Institut d’Optique Graduate School (FR)
- Laboratoire Charles Fabry (FR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Optica
- Published
- 2025-01-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1364/optica.533492
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Glass properties and applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.18