Hybrid Heat Capacity - Moving Slab Laser Concept

A hybrid configuration of a heat capacity laser (HCL) and a moving slab laser (MSL) has been studied. Multiple volumes of solid-state laser material are sequentially diode-pumped and their energy extracted. When a volume reaches a maximum temperature after a ''sub-magazine depth'', it is moved out of the pumping region into a cooling region, and a new volume is introduced. The total magazine depth equals the submagazine depth times the number of volumes. The design parameters are chosen to provide high duty factor operation, resulting in effective use of the diode arrays. The concept significantly reduces diode array cost over conventional heat capacity lasers, and it is considered enabling for many potential applications. A conceptual design study of the hybrid configuration has been carried out. Three concepts were evaluated using CAD tools. The concepts are described and their relative merits discussed. Because of reduced disk size and diode cost, the hybrid concept may allow scaling to average powers on the order of 0.5 MW/module