High average and high peak brightness slab laser

A high average and high peak brightness Nd:YAG MOPA laser system composed of a laser-diode-pumped Nd:YAG master oscillator, flash-lamp-pumped slab power amplifiers and a phase conjugated mirror was developed. The system demonstrates an average output power of 235 W at a repetition rate of 320 Hz and a peak power of 30 MW at a pulse duration of 24 ns with M/sup 2/=1.5. Both an average brightness of 7/spl times/10/sup 9/ W/cm/sup 2//spl middot/sr and a peak brightness of 1/spl times/10/sup 15/ W/cm2/spl middot/sr are achieved simultaneously. The system design rules that we confirmed suggest that by replacing lamp pumping in the amplifier with laser-diode pumping, an average output power of /spl sim/1 kW can be obtained at /spl sim/1 kHz with a higher average brightness of /spl sim/3/spl times/10/sup 10/ W/cm/sup 2//spl middot/sr and a higher peak brightness of /spl sim/3/spl times/10/sup 15/ W/cm/sup 2//spl middot/sr.