Abstract

We have assembled and tested a diode-pumped, phase conjugated Nd:YAG master oscillator power amplifier (PC MOPA) operating at an average power of 100 Watts. 1 J per pulse has been extracted at a repetition rate of 100 Hz with a beam quality (BQ) of 1.1 x diffraction limited (D.L.). This combination of average power and beam quality makes this the brightest short pulse solid-state laser reported to date. The optical efficiency of 22% and the overall efficiency of 9.4% also represent record performance for high energy short pulse lasers. Excellent spatial uniformity and a pulse length of 7 ns make this laser ideal for frequency doubling and parametric conversion.

© 1993 Optical Society of America