Power Optics and Its New Applications

Abstract

One of the brightest and most promising implementations of the ideas of power optics is now the introduction of forced heat transfer in high-power semiconductor lasers, which are widely used today to pump solid-state lasers having active elements of different geometry: rods, disks, slabs, fibres [1–4]. Solid-state lasers have the highest efficiency reaching 80 % in some case. Modern manufacturing technologies of semiconductor structures made it possible to significantly increase the laser lifetime (tens of thousands of hours of continuous operation). The variation of the semiconductor material composition can change the wavelength range of radiation from the near-IR to the UV. These lasers are very compact, reliable and easy to operate. The power output can be increased by the simultaneous use of a large number of laser diodes, which are formed in one-dimensional or two-dimensional effectively cooled structures (Fig. 13.1).