An apparatus includes a heat exchanger with a body having a passage through the body. The passage defines apertures on multiple sides of the body, and the passage is configured to allow optical signals to pass through the body. One or more tapered edges are at least partially around one or more of the apertures, and each tapered edge is configured to reflect optical radiation inward into the passage. One or more absorptive surfaces are within the passage, and the one or more absorptive surfaces configured to absorb the reflected optical radiation. The heat exchanger is configured to convert the absorbed optical radiation into heat, and the body further includes one or more cooling channels configured to receive coolant that absorbs the heat.

A laser device includes: a first mirror and a second mirror that cause resonance of a plurality of beams having different wavelengths from one another; a diffraction grating that causes the beams that are incident from the first mirror with directions of beam central axes being different from one another to travel to the second mirror while aligning the beam central axes with one another, and causes the beams that are incident from the second mirror with the beam central axes being aligned with one another to travel to the first mirror while causing the directions of the beam central axes to be different from one another; and a housing unit housing a laser medium that is a medium through which the beams traveling between the first mirror and the diffraction grating pass, and has a discrete gain spectrum in which a peak occurs at each wavelength of the beams.

A method and apparatus for characterizing an optical element. The optical element is part of a laser and is mounted on a translation stage to scan the optical element transverse to an intracavity laser beam. A performance characteristic of the laser is recorded as a function of position of the optical element.

A gas laser device includes a shielding plate that is a first shielding member, and a shielding plate that is a second shielding member. The first shielding member includes a first opening, and a second opening. A laser beam that is to be propagated to discharge regions passes through the first opening. The laser beam that has taken a round trip through the discharge regions after passing through the first opening passes through the second opening. The second shielding plate faces the first shielding member the discharge regions located therebetween. The shielding plate includes an opening that is a third opening. The laser beam that has been propagated through the first opening and the discharge regions, and the laser beam that is to be propagated to the second opening through the discharge regions pass through the third opening. A plane shape of the third opening includes a rectilinear segment.

A spectral beam combiner is based upon a specialized diffraction grating that is intentionally configured to create output signals along two separate paths, each path supporting a spectrally-combined beam. One path supports the propagation of a majority of the spectrally-combined beam (e.g., 80-95%) and is defined as the output path from the beam combiner. The remainder of the spectrally-combined beam is directed along a separate path and into an external cavity arrangement used to perform wavelength stabilization. Either reflective or transmissive diffraction gratings may be used, with different diffraction orders and/or polarization states of the spectrally-combined optical beam used to create the output beam and the separate wavelength stabilization feedback beam.

An optical kit includes a base including a main surface; and a holding unit provided on the main surface to hold an optical system. The holding unit includes a lens holding unit that holds a lens, a reflector holding unit that holds a corner reflector, a first aperture member holding unit that holds a first aperture member, a second aperture member holding unit that holds a second aperture member, and a third aperture member holding unit that holds a third aperture member. The reflector holding unit includes a first mechanism that holds an entirety of the corner reflector so as to be rotatable along the main surface, and a second mechanism configured to adjust an optical axis of a diffracted light in each of a reflective diffraction grating and a mirror.

The laser device includes a first mirror and a second mirror forming a resonator, a gain medium disposed between the first mirror and the second mirror and having a light emitting surface, an antireflection film provided on the light emitting surface of the gain medium, at least one optical element disposed between the gain medium and the second mirror, and a diffraction grating disposed between the optical element and the second mirror. The gain medium is a semiconductor layered body including an active layer and having a varying gain distribution in at least a first direction within the light emitting surface, and includes no waveguide.

A system and method for stabilizing and combining multiple emitted beams into a single system using both WBC and WDM techniques.

A low-repetition-rate (10-Hz), picosecond (ps) optical parametric generator (OPG) system produces higher energy output levels in a more robust and reliable system than previously available. A picosecond OPG stage is seeded at an idler wavelength with a high-power diode laser and its output at ˜566 nm is amplified in a pulsed dye amplifier (PDA) stage having two dye cells, resulting in signal enhancement by more than three orders of magnitude. The nearly transform-limited beam at ˜566 nm has a pulse width of ˜170 ps with an overall output of ˜2.3 mJ/pulse. A spatial filter between the OPG and PDA stages and a pinhole between the two dye cells improve high output beam quality and enhances coarse and fine wavelength tuning capability.

A laser assembly (1710) for generating an assembly output beam (1712) includes a laser subassembly (1716) including a first laser module (1716A) and a second laser module (1716B), a transform assembly (1744), and a beam combiner (1746). The first laser module (1716A) emits a plurality of spaced apart first laser beams (1720A). The second laser module (1716B) emits a plurality of spaced apart second laser beams (1720B). The transform assembly (1744) is positioned in a path of the laser beams (1720A) (1720B). The transform assembly (1744) directs the laser beams (1720A) (1720B) to spatially overlap at a focal plane of the transform assembly (1744). The beam combiner (1746) is positioned at the focal plane that combines the lasers beams (1720A) (1720B) to provide a combination beam. The laser beams (1720A) (1720B) directed by the transform assembly (1744) impinge on the beam combiner (1746) at different angles.