Possibility for increasing the efficiency and emission brightness of high-power lasers through nonlinear summation of a train of nanosecond pulses

Design principles are discussed for a laser system consisting of a laser pump source that radiates a train of pulses, which are summed by a nonlinear converter with an optical delay line. Possibilities for increasing the efficiency of the system and the emission brightness at the output of the summing converter are demonstrated. Calculations have been carried out for a system with a neodymium laser and a summing converter based on stimulated Raman scattering which has an output energy of ~1 kJ and a beam aperture of 20 × 20 cm.