STATIC GAS CONDUCTION COOLED SLAB GEOMETRY ND-GLASS LASER

A glass slab laser has been designed that uses a layer of static gas to cool the laser medium and thus avoids the difficulties associated with direct fluid cooling. Static gas cooling has the added advantage of allowing the laser medium to be operated above the fluid boiling point. It also allows easy interchange of laser media. The static gas layer is not only a controlled thermal boundary, it is also a soft' thermal boundary that screens the laser medium from irregularities in the cooling flow and from thermal shock due to the sudden loss or change in fluid coolant temperature. Finally, the use of static gas cooling allows the operation of slab lasers with unique geometries such as the moving slab laser concept recently proposed by T. J. Kane and R. L. Byer (1982) as a method of obtaining high average power from Nd:glass medium.