Design of high-brightness TEM00-mode solar-pumped laser for renewable material processing

D. Liang; J. Almeida

doi:10.1117/12.2063441

22 August 2014 Design of high-brightness TEM₀₀-mode solar-pumped laser for renewable material processing

D. Liang, J. Almeida

Proceedings Volume 9286, Second International Conference on Applications of Optics and Photonics; 92860N (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2063441
Event: Second International Conference on Applications of Optics and Photonics, 2014, Aveiro, Portugal

Abstract

The conversion of sunlight into laser light by direct solar pumping is of ever-increasing importance because broadband, temporally constant, sunlight is converted into laser light, which can be a source of narrowband, collimated, rapidly pulsed, radiation with the possibility of obtaining extremely high brightness and intensity. Nonlinear processes, such as harmonic generation, might be used to obtain broad wavelength coverage, including the ultraviolet wavelengths, where the solar flux is very weak. The direct excitation of large lasers by sunlight offers the prospect of a drastic reduction in the cost of coherent optical radiation for high average power materials processing. This renewable laser has a large potential for many applications such as high-temperature materials processing, renewable magnesium-hydrogen energy cycle and so on. We propose here a scalable TEM00 mode solar laser pumping scheme, which is composed of four firststage 1.13 m diameter Fresnel lenses with its respective folding mirrors mounted on a two-axis automatic solar tracker. Concentrated solar power at the four focal spots of these Fresnel lenses are focused individually along a common 3.5 mm diameter, 70 mm length Nd:YAG rod via four pairs of second-stage fused-silica spherical lenses and third-stage 2D-CPCs (Compound Parabolic Concentrator), sitting just above the laser rod which is also double-pass pumped by four V-shaped pumping cavities. Distilled water cools both the rod and the concentrators. 15.4 W TEM00 solar laser power is numerically calculated, corresponding to 6.7 times enhancement in laser beam brightness.

Citation Download Citation

D. Liang and J. Almeida "Design of high-brightness TEM₀₀-mode solar-pumped laser for renewable material processing", Proc. SPIE 9286, Second International Conference on Applications of Optics and Photonics, 92860N (22 August 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2063441

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available

Members: $17.00

Non-members: $21.00 ADD TO CART

PROCEEDINGS
7 PAGES

DOWNLOAD PAPER SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

GET CITATION

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Get copyright permission Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace

KEYWORDS

Nd:YAG lasers

Fresnel lenses

Mirrors

Solar energy

Solar concentrators

Absorption

Spherical lenses

Show All Keywords

Keywords/Phrases

Search In:

Publication Years