A high power CW pumped Nd:YAG laser with maximum CW output power of more than 1.8kW has been developed.
This laser can be operated at pulsed mode (guasi-CW) by utilizing a specially developed high-speed switching power supply.
The laser peak power so far obtained is more than 3.6kW and the repetition rate is more than 100pps (the rise time from 0 to 3.6kW is about 3ms).
This laser consists of six cascaded single elliptical cavities. Each cavity has an 8mm diameter and 152mm length YAG rod and a Krypton Arc lamp.
One of the reasons that we have developed such a high power CW pumped Nd:YAG laser is to enable special welding at very narrow and difficult places which have been difficult to access when used with a CO2 laser.
In order to attain flexibility, we have also developed high power transmitting optical fiber optics.