LASER CLAMPING ASSEMBLY AND METHOD

A laser clamping system for a disc laser medium that includes two heat conductive members (one of which is optically transparent) positioned on either side of a disc laser. Pressure is applied to the conductive members to restrain the disc from deforming under pumping conditions to reduce the lensing effect. Thin disc geometry allows the thermal load of laser material to be much closer to the heat conductive members so that heat dissipation is generally more efficient than that of other geometric configurations (e.g. rod or slab). In disc lasers each part of the laser beam experiences the same temperature gradient so that there is no lensing effect caused by radial temperature distribution. It has been discovered that any resulting lensing effect is disc lasers is mainly from the thermo-mechanical deformation of the disc itself. Consequently, a disc laser with clamped boundary conditions using the system as described above reduces the lensing effect and enables scaling laser power to a much higher level compared to unclamped disc laser systems. The clamping system and method of the present invention also improves performance in rod and slab type laser medium geometries.