Progress in high-energy-class diode laser pump sources

A new generation of diode-pumped high-energy-class solid-state laser facilities is in development that generate multi-joule pulse energies at around 10 Hz. Currently deployed quasi-continuous-wave (QCW) diode lasers deliver average in-pulse pump powers of around 300 W per bar. Increased power-per-bar helps to reduce the system size, complexity and cost per Joule and the increased pump brilliance also enables more efficient operation of the solid state laser itself. It has been shown in recent studies, that optimized QCW diode laser bars centered at 940...980 nm can operate with an average in-pulse power of > 1000 W per bar, triple that of commercial sources. When operated at pulsed condition of 1 ms, 10 Hz, this corresponds to > 1 J/bar. We review here the status of these high-energy-class pump sources, showing how the highest powers are enabled by using long resonators (4...6 mm) for improved cooling and robustly passivated output facets for high reliability. Results are presented for prototype passively-cooled single bar assemblies and monolithic stacked QCW arrays. We confirm that 1 J/bar is sustained for fast-axis collimated stacks with a bar pitch of 1.7 mm, with narrow lateral far field angle (< 12 degrees with 95% power) and spectral width (< 12 nm with 95% power). Such stacks are anticipated to enable Joule/bar pump densities to be used near-term in commercial high power diode laser systems. Finally, we briefly summarize the latest status of research into bars with higher efficiencies, including studies into operation at sub-zero temperatures (-70 degrees C), which also enables higher powers and narrower far field and spectra.