NONDIODE LASERS

NONDIODE LASERS

The Series 240 multiwatt diode-pumped visible laser from Lightwave Electronics (Mountain View, CA) is the first commercial CW diode-pumped green laser to produce multiwatt output, making it an alternative to ion lasers. The Series 240 has a high-quality TEM00 beam with very-low-intensity noise, and it requires only standard line voltages. Introduced at CLEO `95, the laser is appropriate for medical and entertainment applications as well as in the scientific research laboratory for spectroscopy and pumping tunable lasers. The laser head includes all resonator optics, an intracavity doubler, and closed-loo¥water cooling with a water-to-air heat exchanger. Lightwave`s proprietary direct-coupled pum¥technology permits direct side pumping of the solid-state crystal with diode arrays. Producing more than 2 W, the Series 240 is smaller and more efficient than an ion laser of the same output power.