Millisecond neodymium-glass laser characterized by a high output energy and a high directionality of radiation

A three-channel neodymium-glass laser system was developed. This system emitted quasicontinuous pulses of 10^–3 sec duration. The output energy of the system was ~10 kJ and the radiation power density on a target zone of over 0.5 cm in size was 10⁶–10⁸ W/cm². A high-power single-channel laser with a high directionality of the radiation was constructed using a telescopic resonator and a resonator with a confocal lens system. The output energy of this laser was ~ 4 kJ and the duration of the output pulses was 0.8·10^–3 sec. The angular divergence of the output radiation was 3·10^–4 rad. When this radiation was focused by a system composed of long-focus and short-focus lenses, the average (during a pulse) radiation power density in the focal plane was ~ 10¹¹ W/cm².