Disclosed are apparatuses, systems, methods, and computer program products for monitoring the health of a laser such as solid-state laser or a gas laser. For example, the laser may be included in a laser machining system. The laser may be controlled by controller and an interface to communicate with the laser including status information and commands. The laser health monitor passively receives the status information from the laser and the commands to the laser without disturbing the communication between the laser and the laser controller. The laser health monitor generates alerts when one or more rules applied to the laser status information indicate a condition such as stale gas, low energy production, incorrect voltages, as well as other conditions. The alerts may be sent via email or SMS message or another communication mechanism to a recipient.

A polarisation and mode selection technique for a gas waveguide laser is described in which a surface of the waveguide is formed to be substantially dielectric with a localised metallic region therein. The metallic region provides linear polarisation while the dielectric surface provides for low order mode selection. Embodiments are described to channel and planar waveguides with various resonator configurations. Ranges are provided for the size and location of the metallic region on the waveguide surface.

A system and a method for generating tunable ultrafast optical pulses, the method comprising spectral broadening of a laser input beam by propagating the laser input beam in a nonlinear medium of a third-order nonlinear susceptibility .sup.(3), yielding an output laser spectrum; and one of: i) selecting at least one portion of the output laser spectrum, yielding an output pulse different than the input pulse and centered at a different frequency; ii) temporal compensation and spatial spreading of spectral components of the output laser spectrum; selecting two pulses at two different frequencies; and nonlinearly mixing the two pulses together in a first second-order nonlinear susceptibility .sup.(2) nonlinear crystal into a third pulse centered at a frequency which is a difference between the frequencies of the first two pulses; and iii) dividing output laser spectrum into a pump beam and a probe beam, directing a pump pulse to a third second-order nonlinear crystal for THz radiation generation; and directing a probe pulse to a third second-order nonlinear crystal for THz radiation reconstruction.

A laser machining device capable of recovering an exhaust performance of a dry pump easily is provided. A laser machining device includes: an oscillating portion that generates a machining laser beam G; an enclosure portion in which a first gas is enclosed; and an exhausting portion that exhausts the first gas together with a dirt generated in the enclosure portion in association with an operation of the oscillating portion. The exhausting portion includes: a dry pump; a first line that connects the enclosure portion and the dry pump; a second line that supplies a second gas having a higher pressure than the first gas to the dry pump; a valve portion that opens or closes the first line and the second line; and a control unit that controls opening or closing of the valve portion.

A laser machining device capable of recovering an exhaust performance of a dry pump easily is provided. A laser machining device includes: an oscillating portion that generates a machining laser beam G; an enclosure portion in which a first gas is enclosed; and an exhausting portion that exhausts the first gas together with a dirt generated in the enclosure portion in association with an operation of the oscillating portion. The exhausting portion includes: a dry pump; a first line that connects the enclosure portion and the dry pump; a second line that supplies a second gas having a higher pressure than the first gas to the dry pump; a valve portion that opens or closes the first line and the second line; and a control unit that controls opening or closing of the valve portion.

A carbon dioxide gas-discharge slab-laser is assembled in a laser-housing. The laser-housing is formed from a hollow extrusion. An interior surface of the extrusion provides a ground electrode of the laser. Another live electrode is located within the extrusion, electrically insulated from and parallel to the ground electrode, forming a discharge-gap of the slab-laser. The electrodes are spaced apart by parallel ceramic strips. Neither the extrusion, nor the live electrode, include fluid coolant channels. The laser-housing is cooled by fluid-cooled plates attached to the outside thereof.

An optical element includes an optical waveguide layer. The optical waveguide includes a periodic structure of grooves. The optical waveguide layer has a layer-thickness equal to or greater than 1.5 m and is made of material selected from a group consisting of Ta2O5, Al2O3, LiNbO3, LiTaO3, AlN, GaN, SiC, and Yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG). (D/0.5)2.5 is satisfied where D indicates the depth of groove; and indicates the pitch of the arranged grooves in the periodic structure. The unit of is identical to the unit of D.

A narrow-band diode pumped alkali laser (DPAL) comprising a diode emitter assembly of broad area diode lasers arranged in a stack or array to emit longitudinally at a power level in a power range of 10-1500 W through a frequency selective element assembly aligned and positioned in an external laser cavity to the diode emitter assembly. The frequency selective element assembly comprising: an optical cell containing alkali vapor positioned between a pair of crossed polarizers; a partially reflective mirror that reflects a portion of light passing through the optical cell back toward the diode emitter assembly; and magnetic field producing components that produce a magnetic field through the optical cell that creates a 90 polarization of light passing through the optical cell at a narrow-band frequency corresponding to the absorption line of alkali atom, attenuating components of the light passing through the optical cell at frequencies outside of the narrow-band frequency.

A waveguide gas laser having a laser resonator cavity of a variable length is subjected to cyclical varying of the length of the cavity during generation of a laser beam a length variation amount sufficient to force a laser beam generated in the resonator cavity though a substantially complete optical longitudinal cavity mode at a rate operable to smooth at least one laser beam parameter variation. In this manner variation in the laser beam parameter is averaged by moving through at least a portion of an optical longitudinal cavity mode.

A carbon dioxide gas-discharge slab-laser is assembled in a laser-housing. The laser-housing is formed from a hollow extrusion. An interior surface of the extrusion provides a ground electrode of the laser. Another live electrode is located within the extrusion, electrically insulated from and parallel to the ground electrode, forming a discharge-gap of the slab-laser. The electrodes are spaced apart by parallel ceramic strips. Neither the extrusion, nor the live electrode, include any direct fluid-cooling means. The laser-housing is cooled by fluid-cooled plates attached to the outside thereof.