Evolution of high brightness solid state lasers at TRW

Summary form only given. TRW has been developing high brightness diode-pumped solid state lasers over the last 12 years and has focused its efforts primarily on zig-zag slab geometry gain media with a variety of extraction architectures including power oscillators (PO) and master oscillator power amplifiers (MOPA). A number of development steps have been implemented to demonstrate very high brightness laser systems. These are grouped into two main categories: engineering of advanced gain modules, where thermal and mechanical issues are well managed; and using extraction architectures that provide high brightness (high power with good beam quality).