300 W quasi-continuous-wave diffraction-limited output from a diode-pumped Nd:YAG master oscillator power amplifier with fiber phase-conjugate stimulated Brillouin scattering mirror

A master oscillator power amplifier system comprising a cw Nd:YAG master oscillator, a quasi-cw diode-pumped power amplifier, and a fiber-based stimulated Brillouin scattering phase-conjugate mirror is reported. A 12-pass amplifier configuration is employed to achieve high gain in a small-length slab amplifier. Residual and pump-induced optical inhomogeneities in the slab are corrected by the fiber phase conjugator to achieve diffraction-limited output beam quality. 300 W quasi-cw output and a maximal attainable gain of approximately 150 for the system are obtained.