Patent ID: 8467429

Claim:
A laser comprising: two side pump light sources; a gain medium having a first end, a second end, and four sides comprising a first side having a first aperture area, a second side, a third side having a second aperture area, and a fourth side; a uni-body housing; and a plurality of corner cubes comprising N corner cubes, wherein: the uni-body housing comprises a plurality of cavities, wherein the two side pump light sources, the gain medium, and the plurality of corner cubes are disposed in the plurality of cavities and mechanically coupled to the uni-body housing, a laser beam R 0 produced by the laser is optically coupled to one of the plurality of corner cubes, and the plurality of corner cubes are optically coupled to each other so as to reflect the laser beam R 0 within the uni-body housing, creating a plurality of reflected laser beams R 1 . . . R N , the plurality of reflected laser beams R 1 . . . R N are not disposed in the same plane, a plurality of optical channels comprising N+1 optical channels are disposed in the uni-body housing so as to provide a passage for the laser beam R 0 and the plurality of reflected laser beams R 1 . . . R N , a last of the plurality of reflected laser beams R N exits the uni-body housing as an output laser beam from the laser, the first end and the second end are substantially perpendicular to a longitudinal lasing axis of the gain medium and have a polished finish, the four sides are disposed between the first end and the second end such that the first side and the third side oppose each other and the second side and the fourth side oppose each other, the four sides are disposed along the longitudinal lasing axis, have length L parallel to the longitudinal lasing axis, and have a ground blasted finish except in the first aperture area and the second aperture area, the first aperture area and the second aperture area each has a length disposed along to the longitudinal lasing axis that is less than or equal to 0.5×L, has a polished finished, and is optically coupled to one of the two side pump light sources such that the side pump light source pumps the gain medium, and the first aperture area is disposed in the first side and the second aperture area is disposed in the third side such that the second aperture area is staggered relative to the first aperture area along the length L.