Intracavity control of a 200-W continuous-wave Nd:YAG laser by a micromachined deformable mirror

A silicon micromachined membrane deformable mirror with a diameter of 10 mm, reflectivity of better than 99.8%, and a surface deflection range of 3mum has been used for intracavity control of an industrial 200-W cw Nd:YAG laser. When it was placed in the resonator, the mirror demonstrated continuous (more than 40-h) stable operation under an ~550-W cw optical load, with beam diameters in the range 3-6 mm. Periodic modulation of the curvature of the deformable mirror with a frequency of 250 Hz produced quick switching between stable and unstable resonator configurations, which resulted in pulse-period Q -switched generation with average power in the range 50-200 W, modulation depth from 95% to 10%, and an M(2) parameter of 6.5 to 30.