208 W all-solid-state sodium guide star laser operated at modulated-longitudinal mode

A 208 W all-solid-state modulated-longitudinal-mode quasi-continuous-wave sodium guide star (SGS) laser was developed by sum-frequency of a 1064 nm laser and a 1319 nm laser. The laser contained two spectral lines separated by 1.72 GHz for re-pumping the sodium atoms. To suppress absorption saturation effect of the sodium atoms induced by the high light intensity, we used a white noise generator to modulate the 1064 nm single frequency seed laser in the frequency domain. The line width of the modulated-longitudinal-mode 589 nm laser was maximally broadened to 0.74 GHz compared to the initial line width of ~0.30 GHz. A bright SGS with photon return flux of 56800 photons/s/cm² during the pulse length was obtained.