Abstract
We have built a properly designed, practical cw zig-zag slab laser using a Nd:YAG slab (doped Nd:1.0at%) with a size of 1137 mm × w8 mm × t6 mm, pumped by two krypton arc lamps in a gold-coated elliptical cavity. A cw output power of 130 W at maximum with 2 mrad divergence, smallest ever in the zigzag plane has been obtained. However, the slab acted like a rod on beam divergence in the non-zigzag plane. To reduce beam divergence in this direction, we propose a novel path-averaging resonator using a double roof reflector.
