Re: combining laser beams

[John Gastineau <jgastineau@VERNIER.COM>]

> > > mungan@USNA.EDU 12/11/02 02:37PM >>>
Thanks for the replies so far. I can see I need to say more. A
half-silvered mirror won't do because I want to combine the power of
the beams, not throw half of it away.



Aren't we just talking about summing and/or doubling in KDP crystals?
The geometry is critical, but you can use nonlinear effects in KDP to
either frequency double (or triple) a single laser beam, or to combine
two beams to make a third of the sum and/or difference frequencies.

Frequency doubling like this is very common in Nd:YAG lasers since the
output is about a micron, and passing the beam through a doubler gives
you a green beam.

It's been a long time since I did anything with lasers, but most any
quantum optics or non-linear optics text will discuss this stuff. A
google search on KDP frequency doubling yields lots of hits.

J Gastineau