JPH0316283A - Laser oscillation device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To realize compactness of a device, to reduce a material cost, to improve energy efficiency and to realize easy adjustment by arranging a total reflection mirror on an axis and by making a laser beam excited by each laser rod coaxial. CONSTITUTION:Total reflection mirrors 5 and 5' are positioned on the same axis as a laser rod 2, and a total reflection mirror 5'' is positioned on the same axis as a laser rod 2'. Total energy which is oscillated in each of laser rods 2, 2' is amplified by adjusting the reflection angle properly, converged to an output mirror 6 which is provided on the same axis at the side of laser beam radiation, and radiated partially outside the system from the output mirror 6 as a laser output beam 7. Thereby, laser energy of high output can be acquired only by a single laser head, which realizes compact equipment. Furthermore, since one excitation lamp and one power source thereof are enough for the device, very low cost can be assured. A laser energy of high output can be acquired economically and effectively by a compact device in this way.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to improvements in laser oscillation devices.

(Prior art) In a conventional laser oscillation device, a laser rod made of a semiconductor such as a chromium-containing ruby crystal or Nd:YAG and an excitation lamp for excitation of laser electrons such as a xenon or krypton arc lamp are installed in a reflecting lens barrel. A total reflection mirror is placed on one side of the laser head which is mounted correspondingly to one laser head, and an output mirror is placed on the other side of the head, so that +1vI is formed so that a laser output beam can be obtained from the output mirror.

However, in such a laser head, t
Since there is a limit to the laser energy that can be generated from one laser rod, when trying to obtain a high-power laser beam, two or more laser heads are used and the lasers placed in each laser head are used. The rods are arranged on the same axis, and the laser beams emitted by each laser rod are overlapped on the same axis, thereby obtaining high-output laser energy.

FIG. 5 is a schematic four-sectional view showing the strategy of a two-stage laser head/laser oscillation device using two laser heads, and in FIG. 5, ゜ζ1, 1 indicates each laser head, Reference numerals 4 and 4 designate reflection M tubes in which laser rods 2 and 2 and excitation lamps 3 and 3 degrees are mounted, respectively. The laser rods 2, 2゜ are arranged in parallel with the excitation lamps 3, 3゜, respectively.
When the power source for the excitation lamp (not shown) is turned on, the rod is excited by the arc light emitted, and emits laser energy with different wavelengths depending on the type of rod.The reflector barrels 4 and 4° reflect the arc light. It has the function of efficiently increasing the excitation effect in the laser rods 2, 2° and assisting in efficient oscillation of laser energy.The laser rods 2, 2° in the laser head are arranged so as to be coaxial with each other. The total energy oscillated in these laser rods 2, 2 is collected along the coaxial line by the total reflection mirror 5, which is also arranged on the same axis, to the output mirror 6, and the laser output energy 7 is transmitted from the output mirror 6. is constructed so that it radiates.

The above example shows a laser oscillation device using a two-stage laser head, but if the output of the laser beam is to be further increased, a multi-stage laser head/laser oscillation device using many more laser heads is used. Needless to say, it is a thing.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) However, as described above, in a laser oscillation device using a multi-stage laser head, the equipment is enormous and requires multiple reflector tubes, excitation lamps, and power supplies for the excitation lamps. Therefore, it was not economical.

Furthermore, when a plurality of laser heads are connected and used in multiple stages as described above, there is also the problem that it is not always easy to adjust the positional relationship between the heads and coaxially adjust the laser beams generated in each laser rod.

The purpose of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems in high-power laser oscillation devices, and to provide a device that can economically and efficiently obtain high-power laser energy with a compact device. It is something to do.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The device of the present invention for achieving the above object includes a plurality of laser rods arranged around an excitation lamp, and these plurality of laser woods are simultaneously excited by the excitation rung. In addition, a mirror is placed between each laser rod so that the laser beams from each laser rod have a common optical axis.

<For production> The details and operation of the present invention will be explained below based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 schematically shows the basic structure of the laser oscillation device of the present invention, and is a cross-sectional view taken at 7'.

As seen in FIG. 1, in the present invention, a single laser head l is used, and l excitation rungs 3 and two laser rods 2, 2° are used inside the reflection M tube 4. 2,2° are arranged in parallel on the same plane as the excitation lamps 3 so that the distances between the excitation lamps 3 are equal.

5, 5゛, 5゜ are total reflection mirrors for making the laser beams generated between each laser rod a common optical axis, and total reflection mirrors 5 and 5゜ are on the same axis as the laser rod 2, Furthermore, the total reflection mirror 5'' is arranged on the same axis as the laser rod 2'', and by appropriately adjusting its reflection angle, the total laser energy oscillated in each laser rod 2, 2' is amplified while the laser rod 2'' is The laser beam is focused on an output mirror 6 disposed on the same axis of the laser beam radiation at 1, and a part of it is radiated as a laser output beam 7 from the output mirror 6 to the outside of the system.

The reflector barrel 4 is provided with a circulating cooling water supply/drainage port (not shown) for cooling the excitation lamp 3 and the laser rods 2, 2° that are heated during operation.

Since the laser oscillation device of the present invention is subject to limitations as described above, conventionally, when trying to obtain high-output laser energy, it is necessary to equip several stages of laser heads, each laser head with a laser rod, excitation lamp, and What used to require a power supply for the excitation lamp can now be replaced with a single laser head, which not only makes the equipment more compact, but also makes it extremely easy to install one excitation lamp and one power supply each. Economical.

Although the laser oscillation device of the present invention has been described above with respect to a laser head in which two laser rods are arranged around an excitation lamp, the present invention is not limited to this. It is also possible to set up

(Example> Other embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the Examples below.

Embodiment 1 FIGS. 2 to 4 are drawings showing a laser oscillation device according to the present invention in which four laser rods are arranged for an excitation lamp.

FIG. 3 is a partially cross-sectional perspective view showing the outline of the device, in which 1 is a laser head, 2 is a laser rod, 3 is an excitation lamp, 4 is a reflecting barrel, 5 is a total reflection mirror, and 6 is an output. Showing a mirror.

In this embodiment, the laser rod 2 has a length of 200 mm.
men, 4 Nd: YAG rods with a diameter of 10 mm,
For the excitation lamp 3, one crib I/under clamp with a length of 300 wn and a diameter of 10 m (arc length 200 mm, arc diameter 10 mm>) was used.The reflector barrel 4 was made of a brass plate, and the ceiling surface was made into a parabolic surface. It was formed into a semi-cylindrical paraboloid shape with a flat base, and its inner surface was plated with gold.

The laser rods 2 are arranged on both side plates 4a of the reflecting lens barrel 4,
They were held by rod holders 2a provided through the rods 4b, and arranged in parallel at intervals of about 30 rods. 2b is a flow tube made of quartz glass with an inner diameter of 14 mm that is placed over the laser rod 2 to form a cooling water passage therebetween.

Similarly, the excitation lamp 3 is connected to both side plates 4a and 4 of the reflecting barrel 4.
The laser rod 2 is held by a lamp holder 3a provided penetrating through the mirror tube 4 so that the arc light generated approximately at the center of the ceiling of the reflector tube 4 can be irradiated with the laser rod 2 as a parallel beam by the radial reflection surface of the reflector tube 4. It is set so that it is in the correct position. Both long sides of the reflecting lens barrel 4 are partitioned by side plates 4a and 4b facing each other at a distance of approximately the same length as the excitation lamp 3 on the laser head substrate 1a.

The total reflection mirror 5 is located 100 meters from the end of the laser rod 2 on the axis of the laser rod 2 excluding the laser beam emission side.
It is rotatably held by a mirror holder 5a provided on the reflector barrel substrate 4c of the am so that the reflection angle can be adjusted.

The output mirror 6 is held by a mirror holder 6a located at a position of 100 mm on the beam emission side axis of the laser rod 2 on the reflecting barrel substrate 4c.

In addition, 8 and 9 are cooling water inlet/outlet "1" provided on the side surface of the reflecting lens barrel 4, respectively, and the cooling water introduced from the "cooling water inlet 1" 8 first enters the flow tube 2b of the laser rod 2. After being introduced and cooling the laser rod 2, it is emitted into the reflection lens barrel 4 and fills the interior of the reflection lens barrel 4,
The entire portion including the excitation lamp 3 is cooled and discharged from the cooling water outlet 9.

FIG. 3 shows the positional relationship among the laser rod 2, excitation lamp 3, total reflection mirror 5, and output mirror 6 in the apparatus of this embodiment, and FIG. FIG. 3 is a schematic side view showing the positional relationship.

As can be seen from FIGS. 2 to 4, in the apparatus of this embodiment, the four laser rods 2 are arranged at predetermined intervals on a plane with a vertical distance of 30 ynyn from the excitation lamp 3. In addition to directly irradiating each laser rod 2, the arc light generated in the excitation lamp 3 is reflected by a reflecting lens barrel 4 placed on the opposite side of the excitation lamp 3, and further illuminates each laser rod as a thousand rows of light. Since the rod 2 is irradiated in an amplified manner, excitation and oscillation of laser energy in the laser rod 2 is performed extremely effectively.

In addition, the laser energy oscillated within each laser rod 2 is amplified by reciprocating between a total reflection mirror installed on the same axis as each laser rod 2 and an output mirror installed at the energy emission end, and is amplified at the output mirror 6. A beam of constant energy level is selectively emitted out of the system as a laser output beam. Note that by adjusting the mirror angle, a plurality of laser beams with different energy levels can be obtained simultaneously.

When laser oscillation was performed using the device of this embodiment, the laser output IK was found to be
- (efficiency 2.8%) was able to be obtained.

In order to obtain a laser beam of the same output as above with substantially the same efficiency using a conventional laser oscillation device using a multistage laser head, it is necessary to use a device in which six laser heads each having a lamp capacity of 5K are connected.

As seen in the above embodiments, the laser oscillation device of the present invention uses a single laser head, so it is sufficient to use only one each of the reflecting lens barrel, excitation lamp, power source, etc., and the device is compact. It can be seen that not only the material cost is low, but also the energy efficiency is high and the adjustment is easy.

(Effects of the invention) Conventionally, when obtaining a high-output laser beam, the multi-stage laser head laser oscillation device used requires a large number of reflecting lens barrels, excitation lamps, and their power sources, and the equipment inevitably becomes bulky. Although it was not economical, in the present invention, a single laser head is used, multiple laser rods are arranged around an excitation lamp, and a total reflection mirror is arranged on the axis to generate the excited laser in each laser rod. By making the beam coaxial, it is possible to effectively radiate the beam through the output mirror, making it possible to significantly reduce the size of the equipment, and also to use the reflector barrel, excitation lamp, and power supply for the excitation lamp as all common parts. Only one piece of each type needs to be prepared, and therefore material costs and maintenance costs can be reduced, so it can be said that this invention is extremely economically effective.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side sectional view of the basic structure of a laser oscillation device according to the present invention, and FIGS. 2 to 2 are drawings showing other embodiments of the present invention. FIG. Figures 3 and t1 are schematic side views showing the mutual positional relationship of the members, and Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of a conventional high-energy multi-stage laser head/laser oscillation device. FIG. l, 1゜... Loser head, 2, 2゜... Laser rod, 2a... Rod boulder, 2b... Flow tube, 3, 3゛... Excitation lamp, 3a... Lamp holder 4 , 4'...Reflector tube, 4a...Reflector tube side plate, 4b...Reflector tube side plate, 4C...Reflector tube substrate, 5, 5゛, 5゛゜...Total reflection Mirror, 5a・
...Mirror holder, 6...Output mirror, 6a...
Mirror holder, 7... Laser beam, 8... Cooling water inlet 1'', 9... Cooling water outlet. Figure 1

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A plurality of laser rods are arranged around an excitation lamp so that the plurality of laser rods are simultaneously excited by the excitation lamp to oscillate a laser beam, and a mirror is placed between each laser rod. A laser oscillation device that is arranged so that the laser beams oscillated by each laser rod share a common optical axis.