High-power, high-repetition rate, diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser with good beam quality

The oscillator is a "classical" cavity with two pump heads inside and a bi-focus compensator as well as two divergent lenses to reduce the risk of damage on the mirrors. The Q-switch mode is obtained with two acousto-optical modulators. To maintain the M factor, i.e. to compensate for the thermal effects, the amplifier is a replica of the oscillator (without the mirrors and the Q-switches). At the maximum, the averaged output power is 860 W at 10 kHz. The beam quality factor is slightly increased to M/sup 2/=14-5.