Abstract

We present a novel grazing-incidence composite thin slab laser (CTSL) with an almost aberration-free gain medium. The laser consists of a $260‐\mathit{\mu }\mathrm{m}$ thin $\mathrm{Nd}:{\mathrm{YVO}}_4$ plate that is diffusion bonded to an undoped ${\mathrm{YVO}}_4$ slab. The $\mathrm{Nd}:{\mathrm{YVO}}_4$ plate is cooled at just one side, suppressing temperature gradients that would induce wave-front distortions in the laser field. The pump light of a noncollimated diode bar is directly coupled into the undoped ${\mathrm{YVO}}_4$ slab and guided by total internal reflection to the attached $\mathrm{Nd}:{\mathrm{YVO}}_4$ plate. Since any pump-beam-shaping optics can be omitted, the laser is simple and compact. We obtained transverse multimode optical output powers of 14 and 9.3 W with $M^2\le 1.3$.

© 2004 Optical Society of America

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