Patent ID: 6937629

Claim:
A laser device comprising: a laser chamber having a volume formed therein; a gain medium within the volume and comprising solid-state elements containing active laser ion distributed within the volume; a fluid flowing about the solid-state elements; a semiconductor laser diode for providing optical pump radiation into the volume of the laser chamber; and a laser emission from the solid state elements passes through the gain medium and the fluid; wherein a dimension L of each solid state element is defined by: L ≤ Δ ⁢ ⁢ Tck s q ′″ where ΔT is a maximum temperature difference between a center and a surface of each solid state element, k s is a thermal conductivity of the solid state elements, c is a geometric constant wherein c is a value between 4 and 8, and q′″ is a heat generated per unit volume within each solid state element resulting from diode-pumping.