Research of amplified spontaneous emission and thermo-optic effects in a diode pumped 100J/10Hz multi-slab Nd:glass laser amplifier

A preliminary concept design of a diode pump solid-state Nd: glass laser amplifier based on helium-cooled multi-slab geometry is presented. The laser amplifier is designed to obtain an output of 100 J/10 Hz. The gain slabs applied in the laser amplifier can lead to low thermally induced wavefront distortion, which are based on heating the edge by the cladding layer. In addition, we also develop a comprehensive numerical model for study effect of amplifier spontaneous emission on the stored energy and thermo-optic effects in the Nd: glass laser amplifier. The results of simulations show that energy storage efficiency of 48% and the average volume density of the stored energy greater than 0.55 J/cm3 are obtained for the laser amplifier. The wavefront distortion can be decreased to 0.78 λ for a gain slab in the laser amplifier.