Patent ID: 7280577

Claim:
A method of exciting laser equipment that includes a plurality of doped laser active media in the form of rods and having the same dopant concentration, each laser active medium generating a lens effect in response to excitation, the plurality of laser active media being arranged in series in a region along a beam axis of the laser equipment and forming a plurality of beam waists in a laser beam within the region, the method comprising: applying a first pumping energy to a fast of the laser active media, the first of the laser active media being disposed beyond at least one of the beam waists, at an end of the region, and applying a second pumping energy to a second of the laser active media, the second of the laser active media being disposed between two adjacent beam waists, wherein the first pumping energy is approximately one-half the second pumping energy, the first and second of the laser active media have respective first and second excitation portions having respective first and second excitation lengths, and the first excitation length is one-half the second excitation length; and the first and second of the laser active media have equal diameters.