High-power solid-state lasers with unstable resonators

The thermal lensing properties of stable and unstable resonators are compared and rules are given for the design of optimized unstable resonators containing a focusing rod. Experimental verification with a high-power Nd: YAG system proved that for unstable resonators the restricting relationship between beam quality and output power no longer holds. Careful resonator design enables high output power to be extracted with unstable resonators without destroying the output couplers.