Bonding of single crystal Yb:YAG for aperture scaling of high energy, high-pulse repetition rate lasers

We report on the amplification of 10 ns pulses at 1030 nm wavelength to 10 J at 10 Hz pulse rate using adhesive-free bonded Yb:YAG gain medium slabs. The experiments confirmed that bonded slabs are capable of withstanding repeated temperature cycling down to 120 K as well as thermally-induced stresses arising during laser operation. During high energy operation the bonding interfaces did not suffer from laser-induced damage onset up to the operational fluence of 3.1 J/cm². The infrared beam was also converted to second harmonic. These experiments confirm the viability of AFB technology for the manufacture of large-sized YAG slabs from smaller starting components, thus overcoming current limitations imposed by conventional manufacturing techniques. We believe that this approach will pave the way towards energy scaling of high energy DPSSLs.