We implement Gaussian to flat-top beam shaping in a master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) laser system by directing a Gaussian seed laser beam into a side-pumped laser amplifier via traveling-wave amplification. In theory, one can modulate the cross-sectional gain distribution of the working material in a laser amplifier by controlling its absorption coefficient and the distance between its center and a laser diode bar. In this work, this idea is realized using a side-pumped amplifier with a 15-mm-diameter Nd:YAG rod as the working material and 15 laser diode bars arranged around the rod as the pump. With this apparatus, a near-Gaussian signal laser beam, after being subjected to dual-pass amplification, was shaped to an eighth-order super-Gaussian flat-top distribution beam, while simultaneously amplifying the signal laser power from 10.7 mJ to 72.3 mJ.
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Zhao et al. (2017) studied this question.
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