Ti:Al2O3 laser amplifier design study

In this work, the issues of broadband tuning in the design of a high average power Ti:Sapphire amplifier for a chromatic scanning lidar system are addressed. A novel pump delay and staging scheme is used to maintain high extraction efficiency with flat temporal and spatial pulse profiles while tuning over a 700-900 nm range. The effects of the chromatic scanning scheme on ASE suppression and beam pointing are discussed in relation to the amplifier optical system. The average power scaling for three power amplifier geometries (zigzag slabs, parallel plates, and active mirrors) was investigated to determine the limitations of each. Pump light is provided by diode laser-pumped Nd:GGG slab lasers which make up over 60 percent of the system weight. Predicted electrical to light laser efficiency was 3-4 percent over the wavelength tuning range.