LED-Pumped Laser Amplifiers

LEDs offer new possibilities as a pump source for laser material: as robust and inexpensive as flashlamps, with the stability and lifetime of semiconductors. They make it possible to explore an intermediate regime where flashlamp and laser diode are not optimised: pump energy in the Joule range and repetition rate at 100 Hz. Coupled with Ce:YAG luminescent concentrators, it offers energy in the range 100 mJ -1 J between 550 nm and 650 nm, in the yellow gap for semiconductors. This allows transition metal lasers such as Ti:sapphire, alexandrite or Cr:LiSAF to be pumped. In this talk, I will describe our work on LED-pumped amplifiers: regenerative amplifiers and multipass amplifiers.

François Balembois is a professor at the Institut d'Optique, Laboratoire Charles Fabry, Université Paris-Saclay. His research focuses on the development of new laser sources. He started to explore the potential of LED pumping for laser sources ten years ago and has developed several LED pumped laser sources including Nd:doped laser and transition metal lasers such as Ti:sapphire, alexandrite and Cr:LiSAF.