title: Face pumping of thin, solid-state slab lasers with laser diodes.
abstract: A new technique for face pumping of slab lasers uses transfer of light from 10 quasi-cw laser diode bars through a slotted mirror into a rectangular, highly ref lective pump chamber, giving efficient multipass pumping of a thin Nd:glass slab laser. A slope efficiency of 28% and a maximum pulse energy of 65 mJ have been obtained, and gain and loss measurements with thickness t = 0.45-1.04 mm have confirmed the 1/t scaling of gain in thin slabs and the high efficiency of pump light transfer.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Faulstich
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Baker
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Hall