Scaling up of a high average power dye laser amplifier and its new pumping designs

Scaling up of a high average power dye laser amplifier is discussed. Differences in the characteristics between a high average power dye laser amplifier with transverse pumping and longitudinal pumping are presented by a simple theory and simulations. The simulation results for dye laser amplifiers of 10-kW average output power show that longitudinal pumping is as efficient as transverse pumping with the potential of orders of magnitude lower dye flow rate. New pumping designs are also proposed for a dye laser amplifier aimed to achieve high gain with high efficiency to reduce the number of amplifier stages. Simulation results suggest that the new designs, in comparison with a conventional amplifier, can produce several orders of magnitude higher gain without decreasing the conversion efficiency.