A recent study published in the Review of Scientific Instruments journal introduces an innovative active alignment and stabilization control system designed for laser setups utilizing thin-disk regenerative amplifiers. The solution addresses common challenges in laser operations, such as power fluctuations and beam pointing instability during the warm-up phase, and enhances long-term stability throughout continuous use.
The research team, comprising Jakub Horáček, Lukáš Hubka (Technical University Liberec), Michal Chyla, and Tomáš Mocek, developed a method that actively monitors and adjusts the laser beam’s alignment in real time. By integrating this system into existing laser setups, they successfully eliminated instabilities that typically occur during the warm-up period. Moreover, the system maintained consistent performance over extended operation times, ensuring reliable and precise laser output.
- The method uses a four-mirror control system with two motorized mirrors in the regenerative amplifier, two external mirrors and four camera detectors.
- The implemented system achieved notable performance improvements, increasing power stability from 1.87% to 0.79% RMS and the peak-to-peak stability from 7.43% to 3.88%.
- Thanks to an enhancement of beam positional stability, certain sensor measurements have improved up to 6 times.
“We have been working on active alignment and stabilization of the laser beam for quite some time, as power stability, as well as beam positional and pointing stability, are crucial for ensuring reliable and precise operation in various practical applications of high-power lasers especially in industrial fields such as micro-machining,” comments the lead author, HiLASIAN Jakub Horáček. “This article presents significant improvements of these parameters. The active alignment control system was developed for our thin-disk platform PERLA and ensures robust and maintenance-free laser operation throughout the day.”
