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We have developed a diode end-pumped Yb:YAG slab laser which operates at 10Hz. The device uses a novel endcap design which allows simplified coupling of the 940nm Q-CW InGaAs diode pumps and improves the excitation uniformity of the Yb:YAG. We have achieved 500mJ of laser output operating in the long pulse mode (2ms pulses) in excellent agreement with kinetic code calculations. Very little difference in laser performance between long pulse and Q-switched operation has been observed. To date, Q-switched measurements have been performed at energies to 6OmJ with pulse lengths of 6Ons.

The first demonstration of a flashlamp pumped zig-zag liquid dye laser is presented. Repetitively pulsed measurements with liquid Pyrromethene-567 demonstrated 230 mJ per pulse at 1 Hz. This design will be used to test solid state plastic host dyes.

We report on the status of an experimental activity to scale Cr:LiSAF to high average power using a unique zig-zag optical cavity design.

Studies of the energy scaling and beam quality improvement of a long pulse laser pumped solid state dye laser are presented. These measurements establish the state of the art for beam quality and single pulse energy of a solid state plastic dye laser.

Operation of a laser pumped zig-zag dye laser for pulse lengths > 1 microsecond(s) with beam quality close to the diffraction limit are presented in this paper. Laser efficiency measurements performed with a stable cavity had outputs of greater than 1.7 J at 568 nm using Pyrromethene-567 dye. The intrinsic laser efficiency was 55% with a slope efficiency of 77%. Single longitudinal mode operation was achieved using an unstable resonator with intracavity etalons and seeding with a single mode Kr-ion laser operating at 568 nm. A linear optical cavity using counter- propagating orthogonally polarized waves was used. Heterodyne measurements were used to determine that the bandwidth was near the transform limit with the frequency chirping at a rate approximately equals 60 MHz/microsecond(s) . Far field measurements of the beam quality indicated close to diffraction limited output.

Measurements were made of the intrinsic laser efficiency of the KrF excimer laser system as a function of increasing krypton buffer gas at pump rates up to 0.17 MW/cm3. The results show that the la...

A series of measurements will be reported in which the intrinsic energy efficiency of the KrF* laser was studied as a function of Kr concentration. A Marx Bank-driven 1-m e-gun device1 was used to produce a 600-nsec 11.4-A/cm2 excitation pulse In the laser cavity. The fluorine density used (0.3 % < [F2] < 0.4%) was chosen to keep the fuel burnup to