Patent ID: 7869481

Claim:
High power solid-state non-regenerative optical amplification system ( 100 ) for amplifying a pulsed optical beam, the amplification system comprising: a first optical amplification crystal (C 1 ) and a second optical amplification crystal (C 2 ) for amplifying said optical beam; optical pumping means for longitudinal pumping amplification crystals (C 1 , C 2 ); reflective optical means (M′ 1 , M′ 2 , . . . , M′ 17 ) suitable for reflecting the optical beam so that the optical beam makes a total number of N sequential passes through said amplification crystals (C 1 , C 2 ), wherein N is an integer and N≧3; characterized in that: the reflective optical means (M′ 1 , M′ 2 , . . . , M′ 17 ) are placed in a configuration suitable for alternatively interleaving the sequential optical beam passes through the 1 st crystal (C 1 ) and through the 2 nd crystal (C 2 ).