A New Condenser for a Sun-Powered Continuous Laser

Abstract

A new optical condenser to concentrate sunlight effectively from a parabolic collector into a laser rod is described. The condenser has a conical part made of material of high refractive index with a field lens on the wider end of the cone, which faces the parabolic collector. Radiant flux concentrated into the narrow end of the cone is transferred into a small solid integrating sphere with highly reflecting walls. The laser rod is embedded in the sphere and is pumped from all sides by radiation reflected from the walls. Photometric data and performance characteristics of this condenser used with an arc-lamp source are presented. A sun-powered system is proposed and compared to the arc-lamp system.