A laser pumping assembly includes a parallelepipedal solid laser medium having the shape of a plate in a horizontal plane (xy) and a thickness e.sub.L, the laser medium having an absorption spectral band and an associated absorption coefficient α; at least one light emission module intended to pump the laser medium, comprising a fluorescent parallelepipedal crystal called a concentrator, having the shape of a plate of thickness e.sub.c′, the concentrator having at least one illumination face illuminated by electroluminescent radiation and being configured to absorb the electroluminescent radiation and emit fluorescence radiation in a spectral range exhibiting an overlap with the absorption spectral band, the concentrator having an emitting face; the concentrator being in optical contact, via the emitting face, with a receiving face of the laser medium, the concentrator being arranged perpendicular to the laser medium such that the one or more illumination faces are perpendicular to the receiving face so as to perform transverse pumping of the laser medium, the optical contact being designed such that a portion of the fluorescence radiation trapped in the concentrator by total internal reflection is able to pass into the laser medium by passing through the emitting face, and be trapped in the laser medium by total internal reflection, the thickness e.sub.l of the laser medium being such that e.sub.L≤L.sub.abs/5 where L.sub.abs=1/α is an absorption length of the laser medium.

A passively Q-switched laser with intracavity pumping is described. The passively Q-switched laser has an optically pumped gain element and a saturable absorber element. The optically pumped gain element is situated in an extended cavity of a VECSEL (Vertical Extended Cavity Surface Emitting Laser) so that the gain element is pumped by a circulating pump beam of the VECSEL. The passively Q-switched laser may produce output pulses at an eye-safe wavelength using a low gain laser transition and may use a plurality of surface emitting gain regions to pump the passively Q-switched laser.

A method for manufacturing an optical element is a method for manufacturing an optical element in which laser light is transmitted, reciprocated, or reflected, and the method includes a first step of obtaining a bonded element formed by subjecting a first element part and a second element part, both being transparent to laser light, to surface activated bonding with a non-crystalline layer interposed therebetween; and after the first step, a second step of crystallizing at least a portion of the non-crystalline layer by raising the temperature of the bonded element. In the second step, the temperature of the bonded element is raised to a predetermined temperature that is lower than the melting points of the first element part and the second element part.

Apparatus and method for the amplification of a laser beam by pumping a homogenous composite source beam through an amplification medium. A slab crystalline active medium is side-pumped via a pump module having a laser diode bar and an optical assembly. The optical assembly has a fast axis collimator and a lens in the fast axis and an array of slow axis collimators and the lens in the slow axis. The lenses are spaced so that the individual source beams from the emitters are: imaged upon a first facet of the amplification medium; have a beam waist at or near the first facet; are sized to fill the first facet; substantially overlap on the first facet; and are directed so that peripheral source beams undergo total internal reflection on entering the amplification medium. Embodiments of multiple laser diode bars and optical assemblies are described together with double side pumping arrangements.

The laser amplification apparatus is provided with a plurality of plate-shaped laser medium components (M1 to M4) which are disposed to be aligned along a thickness direction, and prisms (P1 to P3) which optically couples the laser medium components. Each of the laser medium components is provided with a main surface to which a seed light is incident, and a side surface which surrounds the main surface. An excitation light is incident from at least one side surface of a specific laser medium component among the plurality of laser medium components. The excitation light is incident through the prism to a side surface of the laser medium component adjacent to the prism.

A compact laser is provided for in accordance with an exemplary embodiment in the present disclosure includes a compact resonator structure using a non-planar geometry of bulk components. The laser includes a preferred rotational direction of lasing modes and employs bulk components for establishing the preferred rotational direction of lasing modes within resonator. In some embodiments, the preferred rotational direction of lasing modes is established using a reflective element that is outside the resonator structure. In some embodiments, the reflective element induces polarization shifts in the reflected light that are compensated for by a wave plate, which may be outside the resonator structure.

A laser amplifier includes a broadband laser gain medium having a first lateral face spaced from an opposing second lateral face at a wedge angle with respect to the first lateral face. At least the first lateral face receives a pump beam and one of the first and second lateral faces receives a seed beam. A first coating on the first lateral face is highly transmissive at the pump beam wavelength. A second coating is disposed on the second lateral face. In one example, the first coating is highly reflective at the seed beam wavelength over a first wavelength band and the second coating is highly reflective at the seed beam wavelength over a second wavelength band (partially or fully) overlapping the first wavelength band.

A method for manufacturing an optical element is a method for manufacturing an optical element in which laser light is transmitted, reciprocated, or reflected, and the method includes a first step of obtaining a bonded element formed by subjecting a first element part and a second element part, both being transparent to laser light, to surface activated bonding with a non-crystalline layer interposed therebetween; and after the first step, a second step of crystallizing at least a portion of the non-crystalline layer by raising the temperature of the bonded element. In the second step, the temperature of the bonded element is raised to a predetermined temperature that is lower than the melting points of the first element part and the second element part.

In a Q-switched solid-state laser having a resonator (3, 30) in the form of a linear resonator or a ring resonator having an active laser material (1) and at least one first and one second mirror (4, 5) and a resonator length (a) of less than 50 mm, preferably less than 25 mm, in the case of the configuration as a linear resonator and of less than 100 mm, preferably less than 50 mm, in the case of the configuration as a ring resonator, at least substantially only one longitudinal mode oscillates in the resonator (3). The resonator (3, 30) is in the form of an unstable resonator, with one of the mirrors (4, 5) being a gradient mirror.

A system includes a heat sink module and a driving circuit module. The heat sink module includes stepped through-holes that each includes a cylindrical upper and lower portions connected by a ring-shaped surface. The bottom surface of the heat sink module includes grooves that respectively pass through the lower portions of respective sequences of the stepped through-holes. The driving circuit module includes conductive connectors and electrical driving surfaces that are disposed external to the heat sink module. Each conductive connector lies within a respective groove in the bottom surface of the heat sink module. The conductive connectors include internal connectors that each link at least two stepped through-holes in a respective sequence of stepped through-holes passed by a respective groove, and include external connectors that each link at least one stepped through-hole in the respective sequence of stepped through-holes to the electrical driving surfaces.