Claims
- 1. An eye-safe, Q-switched laser system having a number of diodes for optical pumping, said system comprising:a resonant pumped erbium laser having dilute concentrations of unsensitized Erbium and a storage lifetime of at least 4 msec, thereby minimizing said number of diodes needed to pump said laser; and an energy/pulse between approximately 250 mJ and approximately 300 mJ.
- 2. The system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the unsensitized concentration of Erbium is between about 1% and about 2% of active ion, said Erbium having the storage lifetime of approximately 10 msec for a 1.5 micron transition.
- 3. The system in accordance with claim 2, further comprising a crystalline host for the Erbium.
- 4. The system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the laser has a wavelength of approximately 1.5 microns.
- 5. The system in accordance with claim 1, wherein said number of diodes pump approximately 30 to 60 W at 1.5 microns wavelength for approximately 10 msec.
- 6. A high-energy, eye-safe, Q-switched laser comprising:a resonant pumped erbium laser with dilute concentrations of unsensitized Erbium, wherein the unsensitized Erbium concentration is between about 1% and about 2% to provide a greater amount of energy to be stored; and a first excited state of the Erbium that is pumped at approximately 1.5 microns.
- 7. The laser of claim 6, further comprising an Erbium:Yttrium Lithium Fluoride oscillator pumped by the Erbium laser.
- 8. The laser of claim 6, further comprising an energy/pulse between approximately 250 and 300 mJ.
- 9. The laser of claim 6, further comprising a plurality of diodes pumping approximately 30 to 60 W at about 1.5 microns wavelength, for approximately 10 ms.
RELATED APPLICATION
Applicants hereby claim benefit of the priority date for U.S. Provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/201,645, filed May 2, 2000.
US Referenced Citations (16)
Non-Patent Literature Citations (2)
Entry |
Lees, et al. “980nm Diode-pumped erbium 3+/ytterbium3+ doped Q-switched fiber laser”, Electronics Letters, Vo. 31, No. 21, Oct. 1995, pp. 1836-1837.* |
Kubo, et al. “Diode-Pumped Lasers at Five Eye-Safe Wavelengths”, Journal of Quantum Electronics, Vo. 28, No. 4, Apr. 1992, pp. 1033-1040. |
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
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60/201645 |
May 2000 |
US |