Performance of a Conduction Cooled Nd:Glass Slab Laser

The zigzag slab geometry is an established method of reducing thermo-optical effects in solid-state lasers. Achieving predicted improvements requires careful control of the slab temperature distribution. Our conduction cooled zigzag laser design is an attempt to provide a Nd:Glass slab with uniform pumping and cooling within a protective environment. This paper reports the results of initial tests of this design.