Diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser delivers 155 W
Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL, Livermore, CA) recently demonstrated a diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser with a CW output power of 155 W at 1064 nm. The device was pumped by a 25-bar stack assembly of microchannel-cooled 1.5-cm-long AlGaAs laser diodes (far left); output from each diode bar was optically conditioned with cylindrical microlenses to reduce the divergence angle. The resulting 550-W output was then focused with a fused-silica lens duct onto the Nd:YAG laser rod