It is not possible to grow laser rods to very large dimensions, and they would also be inefficient. We therefore change technology to use disc amplifiers to amplify the pulse from a couple of Joules to hundreds of Joules.
A disc amplifier consists of a number of pink laser glass slabs at Brewster's angle with four 32 mm diameter flashlamps which are approximately 1 m long down each side. Like the rod amplifiers, when the flashlamps fire the energy is stored in the discs until the pulse extracts it. The Vulcan laser has 10 cm, 15 cm and 20 cm beam diameter disc amplifiers.
