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A high-power high-efficiency Nd:YAG slab laser with lamp pumping is developed by use of a novel diffusive-closed coupled lamp pump cavity. In cw-mode operation, 1.45 kW of output power is obtained with a slope efficiency of 5.0%. In pulsed-mode operation (50 pulses/s, 25% pulse duty), 1.4 kW of output power is obtained with a slope efficiency of 4.3%. The output power per unit volume is 45 W/cm(3). To our knowledge, these output powers and the power per unit volume are the highest obtained for the single-head Nd:YAG slab laser with lamp pumping.

A Nd:YAG slab laser is a promising candidate for material processing as it has potential of producing a high-power beam with good focusability. The maximum power of a single head Nd:YAG slab laser has been around 1 kW because of optical distortion induced in the laser medium. We have developed a lamp pumped, single head 1.4 kW Nd:YAG slab laser. A Brewster angle Nd:YAG slab (6 × 25 × 213 mm3, 0.8 AT.% doping) is used. The number of total internal reflections of the laser beam in the slab medium is 20. The slab is pumped over a length of 150 mm by four krypton arclamps with the arc length of 6 inches and inner diameter of 7 mm.

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