Sparkle Optics (Menlo Park, CA) has achieved a record 14 W of diffraction-limited laser power at 946 nm using their rotary disk laser technology. To date, power levels at this wavelength have been limited to less than 10 W with poor beam quality due to the quasi-three-level nature of the 946 nm laser line, the low-stimulated-emission cross-section, and the phase aberration in conventional, static media, bulk solid-state lasers.
Using the rotary disk laser geometry, high gain can be produced in any solid-state laser material with low phase aberration in the resonator. Frequency upconversion and nonlinear optics will enable the 946 nm laser to produce high-power laser sources in the blue at 473 nm and in the ultraviolet (UV) region at 236.5 nm. UV lasers are very much desired for remote detection of explosives, while 473 nm lasers can be used for underwater sensing and medical applications such as DNA sequencing.
Work is continuing at Sparkle Optics to generate nanosecond pulses at a 10–100 kHz repetition rate at 946 nm, and to produce harmonics in the blue and in the deep UV. In related news, Sparkle Optics received a SBIR Phase III award from the US Air Force’s High Energy Laser-Joint Technology Office (HEL-JTO) in 2012 to develop laser illuminators. Contact Santanu Basu at [email protected].
