SOLAR LS offers a commercially available model which uncompromisely combines beam quality, high energy/efficiency and possibility of efficient PRR changes with no significant degradation of the output beam parameters. No matter how you may wish to use it — as a stand­alone laser or as a pump source for tunable lasers and OPO — the SOLAR LS LQ529 laser provides a combination of high operation parameters, reliability and reasonable price which could not be achieved earlier. Original and innovative concept of the LQ529 provides all the advantages of complicated and expensive high­performance Nd:YAG lasers in a compact and reliable design which excludes most of typical problems occurring while operating complex laser systems. Time­proven ring cavity design of the LQ529 ensures perfect balance of energy, beam quality and reliability. Original ideas laid in the resonator optical design together with other advantages of ring cavities provide incredible combination of performance features.

Excellent Beam Quality
Compensation of depolarization over the Nd:YAG rod cross­section together with traditional advantages of ring cavities ensure excellent beam profile quality. Unique optical design of the LQ529 not only makes losses and distortions caused by induced birefringence almost negligible, but also minimizes thermal lensing effect. The above allows the user to vary pulse repetition rate within a wide range and requires no further cavity alignment to preserve high beam quality and output energy.

LQ529 lasers provide smooth beam profile for all harmonics.
Figures show beam profile at 355nm/50Hz.

This constitutes a great advantage over lasers using expensive and difficult­to­align Gaussian optics and thus demanding realignment and sometimes even replacement of optical components in order to avoid dramatic worsening of their output parameters if PRR has been changed.

Energy Through Efficiency
One of the main reasons for moderate efficiency of conventional Q-switched lasers is birefringence induced in the Nd:YAG rod leading to depolarization of laser output. Each time the beam passes through the cavity, depolarized lasing is filtered by various polarization units and is droped out of the cavity what leads to decrease in laser operation efficiency. Optical design of the LQ529 laser cavity allows to practically eliminate energy losses caused by depolarization and provides laser energy output with more than 2% efficiency with respect to electrical power consumed by the laser. Such a high efficiency allows the LQ529 to provide up to 600mJ output energy without usingan amplifier. Single­rod and single­flashlamp design is the determining factor for reduction of the laser price and maintenance costs.

Supplementing the basic model with a one­pass amplifier allows to provide up to 1500mJ output energy
in the fundamental (model LQ929) while preserving all the advantages of the LQ529 model.

Stable And Reliable Operation
One of the obvious advantages of the laser is its absolute mechanical stability and rigidity.

Pulse­to­pulse energy stability of LQ529C laser at 355nm (THG)

Rigid optical bench to which all the optical components are mounted is mechanically and thermally isolated from the laser housing. This ensures exceptional alignment stability even under most arduous conditions of transportation and operation. All the non­linear crystals and Pockels cell are temperature stabilized. Optical bench with cavity components is also temperature­stabilized. High-precision termo­stabilization ensures minimal pulse­to­pulse and long­term instability. Heating of optical components to the temperature exceeding ambient totally eliminates any risk of condensation. This feature along with dust­proof housing protects the optics from damage and minimizes the necessity in service. It should also be noted that the LQ529 laser design eliminates the necessity of any laser alignments after the flashlamp has been replaced, while the replacement procedure itself takes less than 10 minutes.

All Harmonics Available
All harmonic options — 532nm, 355nm, 266nm and 213nm — are available as standard.
High-efficiency Harmonic Generators can be either built-in (except for the FiHG) or supplied as separate units upon the customer’s request. For this reason all the harmonics can be ordered with the laser or at later date.

Compact Intelligent Power Supply
A power supply unit and a self­contained water­to­air cooling system are integrated into one compact package. Compact size and closed loop cooling system which requires no external water, allow to place the power supply under the optical bench or wherever convenient. Computer control using the optional RS232 interface allows integration into laboratory or industrial automated systems.
High­power cooling system and automatic temperature control with 0.5°C precision ensure stable laser operation at up to 30°C ambient temperature. A heater built into the cooling system reduces warm-up time to several minutes even at 15°C ambient temperature.

ACCESSORIES AND OPTIONS

• Built-in and External Harmonic Generators up to 5th Harmonic
• Solid State Raman Converter
• High Power Attenuator for All Harmonics
• Custom Configurations
• Solid-state Raman Converters

APPLICATIONS

Nonlinear optics
Excellent beam quality and high pulse energy allow to use the LQ529 laser for nonlinear spectroscopy, plasma physics, nonlinear optics and harmonic generation.

Spectroscopy
High pulse repetition rate allows to reduce data collecting time, while high stability almost eliminates calibration drift troubles in Raman and time-resolved spectroscopy.

Velocimetry
Critical for the success of PIV experimentation is stable, reliable compact laser source. The LQ529 ideally suits for most PIV experements. SOLAR LS offers several custom configurations for Particle Image Velocimetry experiments based on the LQ529.

Pump source
The LQ529 ideally suits for tunable lasers and OPO pumping.

Material processing
Meets almost all major requirements made to lasers for industry applications. Design features provide a highest reliability and low demands to operation conditions. Low operating cost, fast and simple service are also significant factors for industrial applications of the LQ529 Laser.

Mobile laser systems
Unique mechanical rigidity and resistance to mis-alignments, low electricity consumption and air cooling make the LQ529 an ideal laser source for various mobile measuring and monitoring systems which may be installed on any transport means. Dust protected laser head design ensures long-term reliable operation of laser optical components even in field conditions.