Engineering topics

Eggleston, J. M.

Publications and source records attributed to Eggleston, J. M..

13 records

NASA NTRS1985

The slab geometry laser. II - Thermal effects in a finite slab

This paper presents two methods for calculating the thermally induced stress, focusing, and depolarization in a pumped zigzag-slab solid-state laser. A computer program capable of detailed calculations of thermal effects in the general case is described. An approximate analysis of slab thermal effects in many cases allows calculation of these effects without use of the computer model directly. The analysis predicts that slabs of square cross section can be designed to have low depolarization and thermal focusing compared to Nd:YAG laser rods.

Kane, T. J.↗

NASA NTRS1984

The slab geometry laser. I - Theory

Slab geometry solid-state lasers offer significant performance improvements over conventional rod-geometry lasers. A detailed theoretical description of the thermal, stress, and beam-propagation characteristics of a slab laser is presented. The analysis includes consideration of the effects of the zig-zag optical path, which eliminates thermal and stress focusing and reduces residual birefringence.

Eggleston, J. M.↗

NASA NTRS1982

Slab-geometry Nd:glass laser performance studies

It is noted that slab-geometry solid-state lasers potentially provide significant performance improvements relative to conventional rod-geometry lasers. Experimental measurements that use an Nd:glass test-bed slab laser are presented. A comparison is made between the results and computer-model predictions of the slab-geometry approach. The computer model calculates and displays the temperature and stress fields in the slab, and on the basis of these predicts birefringence and index-of-refraction distributions. The effect that these distributions have on optical propagation is determined in a polarization-sensitive ray-tracing section of the model. Calculations are also made of stress-induced surface curvature and the resulting focusing effects. The measurements are found to be in good agreement with the computer-model predictions. It is concluded that the slab configuration offers significant laser-performance advantages in comparison with the traditional rod-laser geometry.

Eggleston, J. M.↗

NASA NTRS1968