Abstract
A planar waveguide Nd:YAG laser is pumped with 430 W of power from 10 laser diode bars to produce a multimode output power of 150 W at an optical efficiency of 35%. Use of a hybrid resonator of the positive-branch confocal unstable type for the lateral axis and of one of the near–case I waveguide type for the transverse axis increased the laser brightness by a factor of with only 12% less power than in the multimode case.
© 2002 Optical Society of America
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