Beruflich Dokumente
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JULY 1971
The frequency and modal stability necessary for applications of CO2 lasers can be achieved easily in
relatively short oscillators at power levels of a few
watts. 1 However, amplification is needed to generate
the higher powers required for many present day
laser systems. Conventional power amplifiers with
the necessary 10- to 30-dB gain tend to be bulky and
inefficient at these low-drive powers as a result
of the low-gain coefficients and saturation flux intensities associated with CO2 laser gain media. 2 In
order to bridge the gap in size and efficiency between amplifiers and oscillators, we have been investigating regenerative amplifier techniques. The
purpose of these positive feedback techniques is to
design high-gain CO2 power amplifiers characterized by the compactness and effiCiency associated
with oscillators, yet possessing phase characteristics which will not degrade the frequency stability
of master oscillator sources. Regenerative laser
amplification is not a new problem area. Previous
investigators have studied quantum or low-level regenerative amplifiers where gain saturation is not
an important phenomenon. 3,4 We, however, take
into account the very essential role of gain saturation which dominates the performance of CO2 regenerative power amplifiers. 5
II. GENERAL REGENERATIVE AMPLIFIER
CONSlDERATIONS
OSCI~LtTOR
I"
ISOLATOR
POWER
AMPLIFIER
0'
\
It,
PA
Go, G
In Fig. 1 some of the general properties of regenerative amplifiers are considered. In Fig. 1(a) a
simple Fabry-Perot amplifier is depicted. In operation the amplifier cavity is tuned to resonance at
the oscillator frequency by adjusting its length. The
main disadvantage of the Fabry- Perot regenerative
amplifier is that it puts an element in line with the
oscillator that can reflect power back toward the
stable laser to cause deleterious frequency changes
which would compromise the frequency stability of
the system. Hence, the Fabry-Perot amplifier requires the use of nonreciprocal isolation immediately after the master oscillator.
Unlike the Fabry- Perot amplifier above, the transmission ring amplifier shown in Fig. l(b) does not
reflect power in the reverse direction back toward
the oscillator. However, this is a two-port device
UNCONDITIONAllY STABLE
CONOITIONAll Y STABLE
GoR<1
Go R>l. GR<l
3133
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3134
Po
= Po + ~P
LIP = {G-l)P
POUT
\2
(1)
,
(2)
(3)
(4)
In order to fully describe the behavior of the regenerative ring amplifier, the saturation characteristics of the active medium must be implicitly included. At the pressures of interest in sealed-off
CO2 lasers, the gain medium can be conSidered to
be homogeneously broadened. For this case, the
laser intensity I being amplified through an incremental length is given by the usual expression
dI -I~
dx - l+I/Is'
(5)
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80 W
100
__ -
0.37; 1.2
0.29; 0.95
CONDITIONALLY STABLE
- - UNCONDITIONALLY STABLE
80
...
60
- -- --
__ - - - -
_-----
~-....
::I
o
Q.
R = 0 NON RESONANT AMPLIFIER
3135
15
10
FIG. 3. Theoretical
comparison of ring
amplifiers with nonresonant amplifier. Power
output vs power input
for various mirror
reflectivities. Dashed
and solid curves
represent conditionally
and unconditionally
stable operation,
respectively.
20
PO' W
which, as will be discussed later, can be obtained
from the experimental data. The conditions in the
active medium can quite accurately be described in
terms of the laser power and the saturation power
as
dP _p
01 0
dx- l+P/P s
(6)
IV. EXPERIMENT
(7)
The power extracted from the amplifier is given by
6.P= (G - 1)P1 which from the above Eq. (7) can be
written
6.P", ~ In(Go/G).
(8)
Figure 5 is a scope trace of the ring amplifier output as a function of frequency. The amplifier is
operating in the conditionally stable mode. A 2000V sawtooth has been applied to the PZT to sweep
the frequency of the amplifier linearly with respect
to the frequency of the master oscillator. As one
moves from left to right, self-oscillation of the ring
is evident. As the frequency of the ring approaches
that of the stable laser, beating of the two signals
occurs in the detector. When both the ring amplifier
and the master oscillator are at the same frequency,
power is extracted from the amplifier medium at the
frequency of the master oscillator.
The performance of the regenerative ring has been
experimentally investigated over a range of parameters including power input, gain, and reflectivity
using a variety of sealed-off and flowing gas tubes.
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3136
GoR<l
GoR>l.GR<1
POWER
METER
PZT
are evident. As the drive power increases, the maximum available power from the ring amplifier increases but at a decreasing rate under both unconditionally stable and conditionally stable operation.
Figure 7 is a plot of AP, the power extracted from
the active medium vs InGo, the natural log of the
small-signal gain. The data represented by the circular points was taken by maintaining a constant
drive power of 186 mW while varying the smallsignal gain by adjusting the discharge current. The
theoretical curve is represented by the solid line.
~ 10
ffi
~
....
A....
oA-
ao::
...
!!!
:::i
A-
e(
C>
~
ao::
w
....e(~
ao::
w
C>
w
ao::
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P(20)
PO= 186 mW
R
52.4%
PSA1 = 27.SW
o
-
EXPERIMENT
THEORY
18
16
14
a.
12
<l
...
~
10
.......o
oa.
REGION OF
UNCONDITIONAL
STABILITY
REGION OF
CONDITIONAL
STABILITY
<
....
...
X
3137
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I
I
I
I
I~GO=I/R
1
I
I
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
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