Concentrated solar energy conversion to powerful laser radiation on neodymium activated yttrium-aluminum garnet

Quasi-Gaussian Multibeam Solar Laser Station for a Megawatt Solar Furnace

“…Moreover, total multimode laser power of 20.01 kW was numerically determined by using 9.25 mm diameter rods. This corresponds to a 10.93 W/m 2 collection efficiency and a 2.0% solar-to-laser power conversion efficiency, with the latter representing a 1.54 times enhancement over the 1.3% of the scheme with the MWSF in Uzbekistan [22], which consisted in the side-pumping of five Nd:YAG rods.…”

“…In order to overcome this issue, solar pumping concepts using multiple rods have been proposed, promoting the distribution of concentrated radiation amongst them [22][23][24][25][26][27]. In 2008, a five-rod scheme with a side-pumping configuration was designed for the One-Megawatt solar furnace of Materials Science Institute of Uzbek Academy of Sciences, predicting a laser power production of 1.5 kW and a solar-to-laser power conversion efficiency of 1.3% [22]. In 2020, a multirod solar laser station was proposed to study the feasibility of these systems for solar energy research in solar furnaces of a larger scale [27].…”

“…A pyramidal reflector was placed inside the large pump cavity to close it and help redirect the solar rays towards the rods. This scheme enabled efficient production of 20 kW-class total multimode laser power, corresponding to a 10.93 W/m 2 collection efficiency and a 2.0% solar-to-laser power conversion efficiency, with the latter representing a 1.54 times enhancement over that of the scheme with the MWSF in Uzbekistan [22]. More importantly, it also ensured significant alleviation of the thermal lensing effects and, thus, the improvement of the laser beam quality factors with the possibility of generating 9.44 kW total laser power from 32 laser beams with quasi-Gaussian profiles, which would not have been possible with the previously mentioned scheme with the MWSF of PROMES-CNRS [27].…”

Zigzag Multirod Laser Beam Merging Approach for Brighter TEM00-Mode Solar Laser Emission from a Megawatt Solar Furnace

“…It has proven its effectiveness in applications such as welding, brazing, surface texturing [28], microstructuring [29], laser ablation, drilling, and cutting [30,31], achieving more positive outcomes compared to that with the conventional single laser beam. In similar fashion, researchers have been proposing concepts based on the distribution of concentrated radiation among multiple rods [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] to abate the thermal stress effects. Through numerical work, multirod laser stations have shown great potential to be used in megawatt solar furnaces (MWSF) [32,36,38].…”

“…In similar fashion, researchers have been proposing concepts based on the distribution of concentrated radiation among multiple rods [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] to abate the thermal stress effects. Through numerical work, multirod laser stations have shown great potential to be used in megawatt solar furnaces (MWSF) [32,36,38]. For the MWSF of Procédés, Matériaux et Energie Solaire-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (PROMES-CNRS), total multimode solar laser power of 22.84 kW was numerically attained from a side-pumping laser system with a solar flux homogenizer and 12 Nd:YAG rods of 10 mm diameter and 516 mm length, resulting in 12.48 W/m 2 collection and 2.28% solar-to-laser power conversion efficiencies [36].…”