Claims
- 1. An optical system, comprising:
a diode pump source; a gain media made of a material with an anisotropic absorption, the gain media cut at an angle to produce substantially polarization-independent absorption of a pump beam; and an optical coupler positioned between the diode pump source and the gain media, the optical coupler producing a pump beam that has substantially equal amounts of pump power along any two orthogonal axes that are orthogonal to the pump beam in the gain medium.
- 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the pump beam is substantially unpolarized.
- 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the gain media is an ytterbium doped double-tungstate laser crystal.
- 4. The system of claim 3, wherein the wavelength of the pump beam is between 931 to 952 nm.
- 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the gain media is a thin disk.
- 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the pump source is fiber coupled.
- 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the coupler includes a polarization beam combiner.
- 8. The system of claim 1, wherein the coupler is an imaging coupler.
- 9. The system of claim 1, wherein the coupler is a non-imaging coupler.
- 10. The system of claim 1, wherein the coupler is a funnel.
- 11. The system of claim 1, wherein the pump beam passes through the gain medium multiple times.
- 12. The system of claim 11, wherein passage of the pump beam multiple times causes a rotation of a polarization state of the pump beam.
- 13. The system of claim 11, further comprising:
a relay optic to re-image the pump beam multiple times into the gain media.
- 14. The system of claim 1, further comprising:
a laser resonator, wherein the gain media is positioned in the laser resonator.
- 15. The laser system of claim 14, wherein a mode of the resonator is mode-matched to a size of a pumped volume in the gain media.
- 16. The laser system of claim 14, further comprising:
wherein the resonator is configured as a regenerative amplifier.
- 17. The system of claim 1, further comprising:
wherein the optical system is configured as a single or multi-pass amplifier.
- 18. The system of claim 1, wherein the gain media is made of a material selected from, Yb:KGW, Yb:KYW, Yb:S-FAP, Nd:KGW, Nd:KYW, or Nd:YVO4, Cr:LiSAF, Cr:Forsterite, and a semiconductor media.
- 19. A method of broadening an absorption band in a gain media, comprising:
selecting a polarization state of a pump beam; and directing the pump beam through the gain media in a direction so as to increase a range of wavelengths over which an absorption of the pump beam is constant.
- 20. An optical system, comprising:
a gain media; a diode pump source; and an optical coupler positioned between the gain media and the diode pump source, producing a pump beam with a polarization state that increases a range of wavelengths over which an absorption of the pump beam is constant.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ not yet assigned, identified as Attorney Docket No. 18120-0010, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ not yet assigned, identified as Attorney Docket No. 18120-0012, both of which are filed concurrently herewith.