Patent ID: 7193771

Claim:
An amplifier system for producing a high power laser beam, comprising: a multi-mode, self-imaging, waveguide having a core of solid gain or mixing medium with a rectangular cross-section, and cladding material that has a coefficient of thermal conduction, interior cladding surfaces abutting opposite, waveguiding surfaces of the rectangular core, and exterior cladding surfaces that are opposite the interior cladding surfaces; a beam input coupling system capable of providing a desired spatial phase profile of the laser beam at an entrance aperture of the core to propagate the laser beam into the waveguide; a pump light source coupled into the waveguide core medium to propagate pump light energy into the core medium to be extracted by the laser beam; a beam output coupling system capable of coupling an output beam from the core at a plane where the beam propagating in the core re-phases into the desired spatial phase profile; and a heat sink positioned adjacent and in contact with an exterior surface of the cladding material.