Numerical modeling of alkali vapor lasers.

Detailed numerical analyses are presented of a continuous wave (cw), single spatial mode alkali vapor laser pumped by a diffraction-limited Ti: Sapphire laser. These analyses provide insight into the operation of alkali vapor lasers to aid in the development of high power, diode laser pumped alkali vapor lasers. It is demonstrated that in the laser considered the laser spatial pattern is significantly changed after each pass through the gain medium, and the laser spatial pattern in steady state operation is also very different from that of the passive cavity mode. According to the calculation, lasing significantly improves the pump absorption efficiency and changes the absorbed pump distribution. The effect of varying the transverse size of the pumped region is also analyzed and an optimum pump beam waist radius is demonstrated. In addition, the shift of the pump beam waist location is also studied. The computation method and its convergence behavior are also described in detail.