A stripline laser includes a discharge chamber between two flat electrodes. A flat multipass resonator which is stable in relation to the width of the discharge chamber has a folding mirror configuration inside the resonator and is associated with end surfaces directed perpendicularly to the longitudinal direction of the discharge chamber.

An optically pumped semiconductor laser includes an active ring-resonator having two or more optically pumped semiconductor (OPS) structures each including a mirror-structure and a multilayer gain-structure. The mirror-structures serve as fold mirrors for the resonator axis. An optically nonlinear crystal may be included in the ring-resonator for generating second-harmonic radiation from fundamental radiation generated in the resonator. Another optically nonlinear crystal may be provided for gen...

A solid body laser has a crystal disk forming its laser active medium. A flat side of the crystal disk is totally reflecting. A resonator mirror configuration includes a partially transparent end mirror and one or more folding mirrors, which are disposed with spatial separation from the crystal disk, and the optical axes of the mirrors extend in an inclined manner on the central axis of the crystal disk in such manner that the laser beam which is diffused inside the resonator mirror configuratio...

External-cavity optically-pumped semiconductor lasers (OPS-lasers) including an OPS-structure having a mirror-structure surmounted by a surface-emitting, semiconductor multilayer (periodic) gain-structure are disclosed. The gain-structure is pumped by light from diode-lasers. The OPS-lasers can provide fundamental laser output-power of about two Watts (2.0 W) or greater. Intracavity frequency-converted arrangements of the OPS-lasers can provide harmonic laser output-power of about one-hundred mi...

A rugged resonator for a laser includes a laser pump housing. An X-fold resonator assembly is configured to receive and hold the laser pump housing. The resonator includes at least four mirrors, a first, a second, a third, and a fourth mirror. The first mirror is configured to receive a first incident laser beam from the first end and to reflect a first reflected beam to reflect as a third reflected beam from the third mirror. The second mirror is configured to receive a second incident laser be...

A laser of the type which generates linearly polarized light and including optical means for self-alignment. Among such polarized lasers are, for example, solid state lasers and particularly ruby lasers, as well as various gas lasers employing Brewster windows. The problem is solved by utilizing a corner reflector in the laser cavity which generates two parallel laser beams. In order to achieve effective laser operation the polarization determining aspect of the laser, that is the crystal axis o...

An ultrafast laser providing short output pulses having a pulse length in the femtosecond range includes a resonant cavity including a plurality folding mirrors for folding the resonant cavity to shorten its overall length. The fold-mirrors each include a plurality of layers deposited by ion-beam sputtering onto a substrate having a surface roughness of less than about 0.5 nanometers RMS. One or more of the folding mirrors may have a negative-group-velocity-dispersion mirror for allowing the las...

A total-internal-reflection thermally compensated rod laser including a lasing rod composed of crystalline or glass material doped with at least one lasing ion. The rod has an optical axis, an axially extending, substantially optically flat, exterior surface, and a substantially optically flat conical surface at each end. Both conical end surfaces are coaxial with the optical axis and has a truncated tip. The first end has a convex surface and the second end has a concave surface. The rod has a ...

A laser resonator including a gain medium with strong thermal-lensing properties includes an arrangement for providing near real-time compensation for variations in the thermal-lensing effects in the gain-medium resulting from variations in resonator operating parameters.

A method for operating an extracavity frequency-converted solid-state laser for performing a laser processing operation is disclosed. The laser has a laser-resonator including an optically-pumped gain-medium. The resonator is configured to compensate for a predetermined range of thermal lensing in the gain-medium. An optically-nonlinear crystal located outside the resonator converts fundamental laser radiation delivered by the resonator into frequency converted radiation. The laser processing op...