Diode pumping of a solid state laser using evanescent field fiber optic coupling: a proposed technique

The use of optical fibers to evanescently couple pump energy from laser diodes to a solid state laser rod is proposed. This technique involves placing a series of optical fibers side-by-side around the barrel portion of a laser rod, parallel to the laser resonator mode. A large index difference between the core region of the optical fibers and the solid state material facilitates evanescent coupling of pump light into the laser rod. Efficient operation will be possible due to a high overlap between the laser resonating mode and the pumped volume.