Picosecond laser amplification system with 93 W high average power

A high average power picosecond laser amplification system with diode-end-pumped Nd:YVO₄ and diode-side-pumped Nd:YAG is described. Laser with power up to 92.7 W, repetition frequency of 73.3 MHz, pulse duration of 26.5 ps, and beam quality of M² < 3.5 is generated in the amplification system. Thermal-birefringence-induced depolarization in the Nd:YAG rod laser head amplifier is measured to be 21.9 W though birefringence compensation is performed.     

High efficiency TEM00 mode, diode-pumped, conduction-cooled, Nd:YAG zig-zag slab laser

We report a compact, conduction-cooled, highly efficient, continuous wave (CW) Nd:YAG slab laser in diode-side-pumped geometry. To achieve high efficiency, a novel laser head for Nd:YAG slab has been developed. For an absorbed pump power of 27.6 W, maximum output power of 10.4 W in multimode and 8.2 W in near-diffraction-limited beam quality has been obtained. Slope and optical-to-optical conversion efficiencies are 45.3% and 37.7% in multimode with beam quality factors (M²) in x and y directions equal to 32 and 8, respectively. TEM₀₀ mode operation was achieved in a hybrid resonator with slope and optical-to-optical conversion efficiencies of 43.2% and 29.7%, respectively. Beam quality factors in x and y directions are ?1.5 and ?1.6 for the whole output power range. The laser radiation was linearly polarized and polarization contrast ratios are >1200:1 in the multimode and 1800:1 in the TEM₀₀ mode operation. In passive Q-switching with Cr⁴⁺:YAG crystal of 68% initial transmission, 18 ns pulsewidth has been achieved with an average power of 2 W at a repetition rate of 16 kHz.     

41 mW high average power picosecond 177.3 nm laser by second-harmonic generation in KBBF

We report on the generation of high average power, high repetition rate, and picosecond (ps) deep-ultraviolet (DUV) 177.3 nm laser. The DUV laser is produced by second-harmonic generation of a frequency-tripled mode-locked Nd: YVO₄ laser (<15 ps, 80 MHz) with KBBF nonlinear crystal. The influence of different fundamental beam diameters on DUV output power and KBBF-SHG conversion efficiency are investigated. Under the 355 nm pump power of 7.5 W with beam diameter of 145 μm, 41 mW DUV output at 177.3 nm is obtained. To our knowledge, this is the highest average power for the 177.3 nm laser. Our results provide a power scaling by three times with respect to previous best works.     

QCW diode-pumped 654 W AO Q-switched Nd:YAG rod oscillator-amplifier laser

A diode laser-pumped acoustic-optic Q-switched Nd:YAG master-oscillator power amplifier laser is presented. The laser is quasi continuously pumped at 1.1 kHz with a pulse width of 172 μs, and the ultrasonic frequency of the AO Q-switcher is set at a higher value (53 kHz). The master oscillator is designed as a thermally near-unstable-resonator, which presents an average output power of 48 W with a beam quality value of M² = 1.41 and a Q-switching pulse duration of 121 ns. The maximum average power of the MOPA system is 654 W, and the beam quality is M² = 6.     

Efficient and high-power intracavity frequency doubled diode-side-pumped Nd:YAG/KTP continuous wave (CW) green laser

Highly efficient continuous wave (CW) green beam generation by intracavity frequency doubling of a diode side-pumped Nd:YAG laser using a single pump head based on a copper-coated flow tube in a V-shaped cavity geometry has been demonstrated. A maximum 30.5 W of CW green power was obtained at a total diode pumping power of 260 W corresponding to 11.7% conversion efficiency of diode pump power to CW green power and 4.7% conversion efficiency of electrical power to CW green power. The performance of the laser by considering the pump power induced thermal lensing effect and the M²-parameter at the fundamental wavelength has been analyzed.     

36.5 W high beam quality 532 nm green laser based on dual-rod AO Q-switched resonator

A high power, high beam quality, compact green laser based on dual-rod AO Q-switched resonator was designed, fabricated and tested. The laser provided a maximum 532 nm average power of 36.5 W at a repetition rate of 65 kHz with the beam quality factor of M² = 1.55 and the optical frequency conversion efficiency from NIR to green laser was as high as 51%. The pulse repetition rate was tunable from 50 kHz to 200 kHz and the overall dimension of the laser was within 500 × 300 × 150 mm³.     

High-efficiency continuous-wave and Q-switched diode-end-pumped multi-wavelength Nd:YAG lasers

We demonstrate high-efficiency diode-end-pumped multi-wavelength Nd:YAG lasers for continuous-wave and Q-switched operation. For the continuous-wave case, the Nd:YAG laser oscillates at 1.06 and 1.3 μm simultaneously; the maximum output power of 2.0 W (M² = 1.3) and 3.6 W (M² = 1.8) have been achieved at the incident pump power of 20.3 W, with the respective average slope efficiencies of 12.0% and 21.4%, for the lines of 1.06 and 1.3 μm, respectively. For the Q-switched operation, we achieve the average output power of 1.3 W (M² = 2.7) at 1.06 μm and 2.0 W (M² = 3.0) at 1.3 μm with the corresponding peak power of 10.2 and 4.2 kW under an incident pump power of 20.3 W.     

Compact 7.8-W 1-GHz-repetition-rate passively mode-locked TEM00 Nd:YVO4 laser under 880 nm diode direct-in-band pumping

We demonstrate a compact high-power passively mode-locked TEM₀₀ Nd:YVO₄ laser with 1 GHz repetition rate by 880 nm diode direct-in-band pumping. At the absorbed pump power of 19.9 W, a stable mode-locked output power of 7.8 W was obtained with the pulse width of 21.4 ps and a beam quality factor of M² < 1.5, corresponding to an optical-optical conversion efficiency of 39.2%.     

An 8.1 W diode pumped solid-state quasi-continuous-wave yellow laser at 589 nm by intracavity sum-frequency mixing generation

We report an L-shaped symmetrical co-folding-arm plane-plane diode pumped solid-state yellow laser at 589 nm by using intracavity sum-frequency mixing. By carefully designing the cavity and employing various techniques to optimize the laser’s specifications, a quasi-continuous-wave (QCW) free-oscillation yellow laser source, which has an average output power of 8.1 W, a beam quality factor of M² = 2.3, and a repetition rate of 1.1 kHz, is developed. The generation of yellow laser at 589 nm is achieved by intracavity sum-frequency mixing between the laser lines at 1319 nm and 1064 nm of an Nd:YAG laser in a KTP crystal. To the best of our knowledge, the 8.1 W output at 589 nm is higher than any other diode pumped solid-state yellow laser generated by intracavity sum-frequency generation so far.     

High-power continuous-wave doubly resonant all-intracavity sum-frequency mixing deep blue laser at 447 nm

In this paper, a high-power continuous-wave deep blue laser at 447 nm with intracavity tripling was achieved. The deep blue laser at 447 nm is obtained by using a doubly cavity, and type-II critical phase matching KTP crystal for intracavity sum-frequency mixing. Through designing of the cavity, the optimum matching of modes and gains for the two wavelengths was obtained. With incident pump power of 30 W for the Nd:YVO₄ crystal and 16 W for the other Nd:YVO₄ crystal, the deep blue laser output of 3.5 W at 447 nm with TEM₀₀ mode was obtained, the beam quality M² value was equal to 1.8 in both horizontal and vertical directions at the maximum output power, and the power stability is better than 3% at the maximum output power during half an hour. The experimental results show that the intracavity sum-frequency mixing by doubly resonant is an effective method for high-power blue laser.     

Continuous-wave Ho:GdVO4 laser pumped by Tm-doped fiber laser with a fiber Bragg grating at room temperature

We reported the Ho:GdVO₄ laser pumped by Tm-doped laser with a fiber Bragg grating. 2.03 W continuous-wave Ho:GdVO₄ laser output power is obtained under 10.5 W incident pump power, with the optical-to-optical conversion efficiency and slope efficiency of 19.3% and 32.3%, respectively, at 7 °C. We can see that, the lower the temperature is, the better the laser output character is. The beam quality factor is M² ∼ 1.29 measured by the traveling knife-edge method.     

High-power continuous-wave Nd:GdVO4 slab laser pumped directly into the F3/2 emitting level

95.6 W continuous-wave laser power output in 880 nm LD partially end-pumped Nd:GdVO₄ slab laser with a hybrid resonator is presented. The slope efficiency and optical-to-optical efficiency were 46.5% and nearly 42.6%, respectively. At the output power of 82 W, beam quality M² factors were 1.1 in the unstable direction and 1.36 in the stable direction, respectively.     

High-beam-quality, 5.1 J, 108 Hz diode-pumped Nd:YAG rod oscillator-amplifier laser system

A high efficiency, high beam quality diode-pumped Nd:YAG master oscillator power-amplifier (MOPA) laser with six amplifier stages is demonstrated. The oscillator with two-rod birefringence compensation was designed as a thermally determined near hemispherical resonator, which presents a pulse energy of 223 mJ with a beam quality value of M² = 1.29 at a repetition rate of 108 Hz. The MOPA system delivers a pulse energy of 5.1 J with a pulse width of 230 μs, a M² factor of 3.6 and an optical-to-optical efficiency of 38.5%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest pulse energy for a diode-pumped Nd:YAG rod laser operation with a high beam quality and a pulse width of hundreds of microseconds at a repetition rate of over 100 Hz.     

Diode-laser-array end-pumped 14.3-W CW Nd:GdVO4 solid-state laser at 1.06 μm

A diode-laser-array end-pumped efficient CW Nd:GdVO₄ laser at 1.06 μm has been developed. A low-order-mode output power of 14.3 W was obtained at the maximum available pump power of 26 W, giving an optical conversion efficiency of 55% and an average slope efficiency of 62%. The laser output beam quality factor at full pump power was determined to be M²<1.8. It is also shown that only lightly doped Nd:GdVO₄ crystals are suitable for high-power end-pumped lasers. Received: 4 May 1999 / Published online: 29 July 1999     

High power and high beam quality CW green beam generated by diode-side-pumped intracavity frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser

We report a stable high power and high beam quality diode-side-pumped CW green laser from intracavity frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser with LBO crystal. By using a advanced resonator, a large fundamental mode size in the laser crystal and a tight focus in the nonlinear crystal could be obtained simultaneously, which are favorable for high power and high beam quality CW green laser generation. The green laser delivered a maximum 532 nm output power of 40 W. The corresponding optical-to-optical conversion efficiency and electrical-to-optical conversion efficiency were 8.6% and 5.0%, respectively. Under 532 nm output power of 34 W, the beam quality factor was measured to be 1.6.     

LD end pumped, actively mode locked and passively Q-switched Nd:YAP laser at 1341 nm

An end pumped Nd:YAP laser at 1341 nm is actively mode locked and passively Q-switched. Pumping was done with a pulsed high power laser diode with maximum power 425 W. V³⁺:YAG with 61% initial transmission served as saturable absorber, and an acousto-optic modulator is used for active mode locking. The output pulse train with 69 ns duration has a total energy of 3.2 mJ with ±4% shot-to-shot fluctuation. The peak output energy of a single mode locked pulse is 0.25 mJ. The pulse duration of a single mode locked pulse is less than 800 ps. The output laser beam is nearly diffraction limited with 1.6 mm diameter, and beam propagation factor M² about 1.3.     

Continuous-wave operation of a room-temperature Ho:YAP laser pumped by a Tm:YAP laser

We reported the Ho:YAP laser pumped by the Tm:YAP laser. The Ho:YAP laser maximum output power was 4.91 W when the incident power was 10.1 W with the threshold of 2.63 W. The slope efficiency was 63.7%, corresponding to an optical-to-optical efficiency of 48.6%. The Ho:YAP output wavelength was centered at 2118.2 nm with bandwidth of about 1 nm. We estimate the beam quality to be M² = 1.29.     

High-power, continuous-wave Ti:sapphire laser pumped by fiber-laser green source at 532 nm

We report the first experimental demonstration of efficient and high-power operation of a Ti:sapphire laser pumped by a simple, compact, continuous-wave (cw) fiber-laser-based green source. The pump radiation is obtained by direct single-pass second-harmonic-generation (SHG) of a 33 W, cw Yb-fiber laser in a 30-mm-long MgO:sPPLT crystal, providing 11 W of single-frequency green power at 532 nm in TEM₀₀ spatial profile with power and frequency stability better than 3.3% and 32 MHz, respectively, over 1 h. The Ti:sapphire laser is continuously tunable across 743-970 nm and can deliver an output power up to 2.7 W with a slope efficiency as high as 32.8% under optimum output coupling of 20%. The laser output has a TEM₀₀ spatial profile with M²<1.44 across the tuning range and exhibits a peak-to-peak power fluctuation below 5.1% over 1 h.     

Theoretical and experimental investigations of a diode-pumped high-power continuous-wave 912 nm Nd:GdVO4 laser operation at room temperature

Based on the rate equation of Nd³⁺-doped quasi-three-level lasers, a theoretical model of diode-end-pumped continuous-wave 912 nm Nd:GdVO₄ laser is presented. Lasing threshold and slope efficiency considering reabsorption effect are calculated and analyzed. It is found that the output performance of 912 nm laser operating at room temperature is influenced remarkably by the reabsorption loss and spatial distribution of the pump beam and laser beam. In experiments, the output power and average slope efficiency of 912 nm laser were investigated under different conditions. After optimization at the parameters of laser medium, working temperature and spatial distribution of the pump beam, up to 16.2 W continuous-wave 912 nm laser output was obtained at incident pump power of 67.0 W, with an average slope efficiency of 41.7%, to the best of our knowledge, this is the highest output power of diode-pumped 912 nm Nd:GdVO₄ laser by far.     

Simultaneous dual-wavelength laser operation at 1342 and 946 nm in two laser crystals and their sum-frequency mixing

A sum-frequency yellow-green laser at 554.9 nm is reported by this paper, 946 nm wavelength is obtained from ⁴F_3/2-⁴I_9/2 transition in Nd:YAG and 1342 nm wavelength is obtained from ⁴F_3/2-⁴I_13/2 transition in Nd:YVO₄. Using a doubly folded-cavity type-II critical phase matching KTP crystal intra cavity to make 946 nm laser from Nd:YAG and 1342 nm laser from Nd:YVO₄ frequency summed, with incident pumped power of 30 W in Nd:YAG and 20 W in Nd:YVO₄, TEM₀₀ mode yellow-green laser at 554.9 nm at 1.15 W is obtained and its M² factor is less than 1.22. The experimental results show that the Nd:YAG and Nd:YVO₄ crystals intra-cavity sum-frequency mixing is an effective method for yellow-green laser and it can be applied to other two laser crystals to obtain more all-solid-state lasers with different wavelengths.