ECE 401

Senior Design Practicum

Fall 2018

Thermal Stabilization of a High Powered Laser Amplifier

[Stabilization]
Project Status Report
September 5th, 2018
Supervising Professor: Jorge Rocca

Team Members

Name Major

Nathan Hill Electrical Engineering

Jackson Vacek Electrical Engineering

Jarryd Meyers Electrical Engineering

Alan Clemens Mechanical Engineering

Jack Boodhansingh Mechanical Engineering

Coleman Gannon Mechanical Engineering

Joshua Leasure Mechanical Engineering

Project Summary
Professor Jorge Rocca’s group is developing state-of-the-art cryogenically cooled solid state lasers that
generate kilowatts of average power. These lasers can be used in applications such as lithography to build
the next generation of integrated circuits, materials treatment, particle accelerators, and lasers. These
lasers are optically pumped by laser diode arrays that produce kilowatts of average power. Due to the
large amount of heat generated, the mechanical components begin to expand and consequently, the
mirrors start to misalign. The key challenge that this team is trying to solve is maintaining precise optical
alignment of the beam in an environment that dissipates kilowatts of average power. To address this
problem the team will be designing a mechanically stable enclosure, a water cooled system with active
feedback to maintain a stabilized temperature, and a negative feedback control system to maintain
alignment of the beam.
Previous Team’s Work and Integration
In previous years of this project, multidisciplinary teams of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers were
able to design and begin prototyping a high powered laser amplifier under Dr. Rocca. According to Dr.
Rocca, approximately 90% of the design has been completed and about 60% of the total parts have been
fabricated.

On Saturday, September 1st, the current team convened with a member of the team from last year, Sam
Thornberry, as well as Dr. Rocca and graduate student David Keiss. The more experienced team
conveyed their knowledge of the current state of the project as well as their expectations of the project for
this year. At this meeting, the new members were given a flash drive containing the SolidWorks models
that the previous year’s team had created. With this came a binder of printed engineering drawings.
Additionally, the group was advised on what the previous members thought would be the next best step in
order for the new members to become more familiar with the project while making progress completing
the prototype. Luckily, Sam Thornberry, a member from last year, has made himself available for
questions should the group need his help. He can be contacted via email and was quite helpful in the
transfer of knowledge to the new group.

Technical Specs
The previous team worked with the primary 500 Hz laser which delivers 1.5 Joules of energy per pulse
approximately every 5 Picoseconds. This primary laser array requires cryogenic cooling for the Yb:YAG
active mirrors due to the number of increasingly larger amplification stages that allow the laser to operate
in the kilowatt range. The project goal of the previous team was to reduce thermal drift by using cameras
to stabilize the laser to an error margin of (+-5 microns) of a target at all times but this goal was not met
due to extraneous factors.
Goals
Based on the information the group was given, the team determined that splitting up the Mechanical
Engineers into teams of two would be the most effective way to begin completing work on the first
system. Jack Boodhansingh and Alan Clemens will finish the current enclosure for the laser amplifier.
The current enclosure needs to have its corners re-designed and parts for the enclosure still need to be
picked up. Joshua Leasure and Coleman Gannon will begin designing and fabricating the unfinished parts
(center mirror, mirror mounts, etc).

The Electrical Engineers will design a negative feedback control system for the laser amplifier that
dynamically adjusts the mirrors as they begin to move. Last year’s team of Electrical Engineers designed
a MATLAB GUI that calculated the beam’s centroid using cameras, stepper motors and an Arduino
Microcontroller. We will not be using any of the previous team’s design, because the beam’s position will
be monitored using quadrant diodes instead of cameras. In addition, our team will be designing a control
system that monitors the seed laser. Essentially, if the seed laser misses a pulse, the entire amplifier needs
to shut off, because of the large amount of power generated by the laser diode.

The integration of the electrical hardware with the mechanical design is also very important, because the
housing needs to be as stable as possible. The Electrical Engineers and Mechanical Engineers will need to
work very closely when designing electrical feedthroughs and housing for electronic components.

After implementing these changes, Dr. Rocca has asked that the team begin designing a similar, but
modified version of the same laser system for the physics department at CSU. This new system will have
a higher average power rating, but a lower pulse rate. However, this means that each individual pulse will
be more powerful and this fact, combined with the design constraint of making the system operate without
a liquid Nitrogen pump, will create new design challenges for the group.