Diode pumped alkali vapor lasers for high power applications

General Atomics has been engaged in the development of diode pumped alkali vapor lasers. We have been examining the design space looking for designs that are both efficient and easily scalable to high powers. Computationally, we have looked at the effect of pump bandwidth on laser performance. We have also looked at different lasing species. We have used an alexandrite laser to study the relative merits of different designs. We report on the results of our experimental and computational studies.