Zigzag Multirod Laser Beam Merging Approach for Brighter TEM 00 -Mode Solar Laser Emission from a Megawatt Solar Furnace

Hugo Costa, Joana Almeida, Dawei Liang, Miguel Catela, Dário Garcia, Bruno D. Tibúrcio and Cláudia R. Vistas
Additional contact information
Hugo Costa: Centro de Física e Investigação Tecnológica (CEFITEC), Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Joana Almeida: Centro de Física e Investigação Tecnológica (CEFITEC), Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Dawei Liang: Centro de Física e Investigação Tecnológica (CEFITEC), Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Miguel Catela: Centro de Física e Investigação Tecnológica (CEFITEC), Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Dário Garcia: Centro de Física e Investigação Tecnológica (CEFITEC), Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Bruno D. Tibúrcio: Centro de Física e Investigação Tecnológica (CEFITEC), Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Cláudia R. Vistas: Centro de Física e Investigação Tecnológica (CEFITEC), Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 17, 1-16

Abstract: An alternative multirod solar laser end-side-pumping concept, based on the megawatt solar furnace in France, is proposed to significantly improve the TEM 00 -mode solar laser output power level and its beam brightness through a novel zigzag beam merging technique. A solar flux homogenizer was used to deliver nearly the same pump power to multiple core-doped Nd:YAG laser rods within a water-cooled pump cavity through a fused silica window. Compared to the previous multibeam solar laser station concepts for the same solar furnace, the present approach can allow the production of high-power TEM 00 -mode solar laser beams with high beam brightness. An average of 1.06 W TEM 00 -mode laser power was numerically extracted from each of 1657 rods, resulting in a total of 1.8 kW. More importantly, by mounting 399 rods at a 30° angle of inclination and employing the beam merging technique, a maximum of 5.2 kW total TEM 00 -mode laser power was numerically extracted from 37 laser beams, averaging 141 W from each merged beam. The highest solar laser beam brightness figure of merit achieved was 148 W, corresponding to an improvement of 23 times in relation to the previous experimental record.

Keywords: beam merging; multirod; Nd:YAG; solar furnace; solar flux homogenizer; solar laser; TEM 00 -mode (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/17/5437/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/17/5437/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:17:p:5437-:d:626944

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().