Abstract
End-pumped lasers offer the advantages of high efficiency and good beam quality over side-pumped lasers. However, it has been argued that scaling the output power from these devices is limited because only a few sources can be focused into the fundamental mode of the laser. Some techniques that have been used to increase the number of pump sources in end-pumping include polarization coupling, fiber bundles1,2, and multiple ends.3,4,5 Each of these has its disadvantages. Polarization coupling gives only a factor of 2 increase. Fiber bundles have significant fiber coupling loss and reduce the brightness of the pump source. In providing multiple ends, there is added intracavity complexity because of an increase in the number of optical surfaces. We have demonstrated and analyzed an alternative technique to use multiple sources based on geometric multiplexing.6,7,8 Here we present a general analysis of matching a pump source to an end-pumped laser, a description of geometric pump sources using the results of this analysis, and an update of experimental results.
© 1990 Optical Society of America
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