200 W双谐振腔组合单向输出准连续绿光激光器

研究了最大平均输出功率达206 W的高功率准连续绿光激光器.利用ABCD定律及高斯光束在腔内的自再现条件,分析了激光晶体热透镜效应及热致双折射效应对谐振腔稳定性和输出光束质量的影响.实验中将两个型号相同的LD侧面泵浦激光模块分别置于一个平-凹V型谐振腔和一个平-凹直腔内,形成两束稳定运转的1 064 nm基频光,经过声光Q开关和倍频晶体后,产生两束倍频光,均到达平面折叠镜,最终由平面折叠镜单向重叠输出.当激光模块的泵浦电流为50 A,声光调Q的重复频率为22.4 kHz时,最大平均输出功率为206 W,最大单脉冲能量为9.2 mJ,脉冲宽度为201 ns,峰值功率为45.8 kW的532 nm绿光输出,倍频效率达到60.2%.激光器2 h工作的功率不稳定度优于2.5%.     

4.44 W of CW 515 nm green light generated by intracavity frequency doubling Yb:YAG thin disk laser with LBO

We demonstrate the generation of 515 nm green laser with diode-pumped Yb:YAG thin disk by intracavity frequency doubling of type-I phase-matched LiB₃O₅(LBO) in a V-type cavity at room temperature. A continuous-wave (CW) output power of 4.44 W at 515 nm was obtained. Optical-optical efficiency of 515 nm green laser is 14.6%. The fluctuation of green laser was 1.6% at the maximum output power in 0.5 h. Thermal lensing effects in Yb:YAG thin disk are investigated too.     

Thermal effects investigation and cavity design in passively mode-locked Nd:YVO4 laser with a SESAM

A diode-pumped passively mode-locked Nd:YVO₄ laser with a five-mirror folded cavity is presented by using a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM). The temperature distribution and thermal lensing in laser medium are numerically analyzed to design a special cavity which can keep the power density on SESAM under its damage threshold. Both the Q-switched and continuous-wave mode-locked operation are experimentally realized. The maximum average output power of 8.94 W with a 9.3 ps pulse width at a repetition rate of 111 MHz is obtained under a pump power of 24 W, correspondingly the optical slope efficiency is 39.2%.     

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.     

Diode-pumped passively Q-switched mode-locked Nd:YLF laser with uncoated GaAs saturable absorber

We have demonstrated passively Q-switched mode-locked all-solid-state Nd:YLF laser with an uncoated GaAs wafer as saturable absorber and output mirror simultaneously. Q-switched mode-locking pulses laser with about 100% modulation depth were obtained. The average output power is 890 mW at the incident pump power of 5.76 W, corresponding to an optical slop efficiency of 20%. The temporal duration of mode-locked pulses was about 21 ps. At the Q-switched repetition rate of 30 kHz, the energy and peak power of a single pulse near the maximum of the Q-switched envelope was estimated to be about 1.6 μJ and 76 kW.     

Diode end-pumped Q-switched high-power intracavity frequency-doubled Nd:GdVO4/KTP green laser

A diode-laser-array end-pumped acousto-optically Q-switched intracavity frequency-doubled Nd:GdVO₄/KTP green laser, formed with a three-mirror folded resonator, has been demonstrated. With 15 W of pump power incident upon the Nd:GdVO₄ crystal, a maximum average green output power of 3.75 W was obtained at 50 kHz of pulse repetition frequency, giving an optical conversion efficiency of 25%, whereas the effective intracavity frequency-doubling efficiency was determined to be 72%. At the incident pump power of 12.8 W, the shortest laser pulse was achieved at a pulse repetition rate of 10 kHz, the resulting pulse width, single pulse energy, and peak power were measured to be 35 ns, 108 μJ, and 3.1 kW, respectively. Received: 18 May 2000 / Published online: 20 September 2000     

Low threshold, actively Q-switched Nd:YVO4 self-Raman laser and frequency doubled 588 nm yellow laser

We reported an actively Q-switched, intracavity Nd³⁺:YVO₄ self-Raman laser at 1176 nm with low threshold and high efficiency. From the extracavity frequency doubling by use of LBO nonlinear crystal, over 3.5 mW, 588 nm yellow laser is achieved. The maximum Raman laser output at is 182 mW with 1.8 W incident pump power. The threshold is only 370 mW at a pulse repetition frequency of 5 kHz. The optical conversion efficiency from incident to the Raman laser is 10%, and 1.9% from Raman laser to the yellow.     

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.     

Three-level operation of a diode-bar-pumped Yb:S-FAP laser

We present an all solid-state Yb:S-FAP laser system running on the three-level laser transition at 985 nm. The pump source was a high fill-factor laser diode bar, with the output reformatted using a two-mirror beamshaping system to produce a rectangular pump beam that focused to a square spot. A nearly on-axis multipassing system was used to obtain four pump passes through a 1.6 mm Yb:S-FAP laser crystal. Gain-switched three-level laser output was achieved with an efficiency of 4.3% with respect to incident pump power. Electro-optic Q-switching produced 0.12 mJ pulses for a pump pulse energy of 11 mJ. Intra-cavity second-harmonic generation yielded a maximum pulse energy at 492.5 nm of 12 μJ.     

Diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:LuVO4 laser at 916 nm

We demonstrate a passively Q-switched Nd:LuVO₄ laser at 916 nm by using a Nd, Cr:YAG crystal as the saturable absorber. As we know, it is the first time to realize the laser with a simple linear resonator. When the incident pump power increased from 14.6 W to 23.7 W, the pulse width of the Q-switched laser decreased from 24 ns to 21 ns. The pulse width was insensitive to the incident pump power in the experiment. The average output power of 288 mW with repetition rate of 39 kHz was obtained at an incident pump power of 22.5 W, with the optical-to-optical efficiency and slope efficiency 1.3% and 3.6%, respectively.     

Intracavity frequency doubling of an active Q-switched Nd:YAG laser with 2.25 W output power at 473 nm

An active Q-switched diode-end-pumped Nd:YAG laser is reported with 2.9 W output power on the ⁴F_3/2 → ⁴I_9/2 transitions at a pump power of 24 W. With intracavity frequency doubling using a 20-mm-long LBO, a maximum blue output power of 2.25 W is achieved at a repetition rate of 23 kHz. The conversion efficiency from the corresponding Q-switched fundamental output to blue output is 96%. The peak power of the Q-switched blue pulse is up to 610 W with 160 ns pulse width. The fluctuation of the blue output power is less than 4.0% at the maximum output power.     

Low-threshold diode-pumped CW passively mode-locked Nd:YVO4 laser

A low-threshold passively continuous-wave (CW) mode-locked Nd:YVO₄ solid-state laser was demonstrated by use of a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM). The threshold for continuous-wave mode-locked is relatively low, about 2.15 W. The maximum average output power was 2.12 W and the optical to optical conversion efficiency was about 32%. The pulse width was about 15 ps with the repetition rate of 105 MHz.     

Gain-saturated Ni-like antimony laser at 11.4 nm in grazing-incidence pumping geometry

We report on gain-saturated operation of the 4d → 4p, J = 0-1, 11.4 nm soft-X-ray laser line in Ni-like antimony (Sb) at a pump energy of only 2.5 J. The driving laser used was a 1054 nm Nd:glass CPA laser system with a pulse duration of 7 ps (FWHM). The pump beam was focused with a tilted on-axis parabolic mirror in a grazing-incidence (GRIP) pumping configuration at an incidence angle of 45°. A fraction of 2.8% of the pump energy (∼70 mJ) was used for the prepulse, which was propagated along the same beam line as the main pulse and arrived at the target 4.4 ns before the main pulse.     

Efficient passively Q-switched operation of a diode-pumped Nd:GGG laser with a Cr:YAG saturable absorber

The continuous-wave (cw) and passive Q-switching operation of a diode-end-pumped gadolinium gallium garnet doped with neodymium (Nd:GGG) laser at 1062 nm was realized. A maximum cw output power of 6.9 W was obtained. The corresponding optical conversion efficiency was 50.9%, and the slope efficiency was determined to be 51.4%. By using Cr⁴⁺:YAG crystals as saturable absorbers, Q-switching pulse with average output power of 1.28 W, pulse width of 4 ns and repetition rate of 6.2 kHz were obtained. The single-pulse energy and peak power were estimated to be 206 μJ and 51.6 kW, respectively. The conversion efficiency of the output power from cw to Q-switching operation was as high as 84.7%.     

Efficient generation of 200 mJ nanosecond pulses at 100 Hz repetition rate from a cryogenic cooled Yb:YAG MOPA system

A diode-pumped Master Oscillator Power Amplifier (MOPA) laser system based on cryogenic cooled Yb:YAG has been designed, developed and its output performance characterised. The laser system consists of a fibre oscillator, an active mirror regenerative amplifier and a four pass main amplifier. 2.4 mJ, 10 ns, 100 Hz seed pulses from the fibre oscillator/regenerative amplifier arrangement were amplified up to pulse energies of over 200 mJ by using the four pass main amplifier arrangement. As a further study we have obtained an increased slope efficiency of 40% and an optical-to-optical efficiency of 30% using a pinhole vacuum spatial filter/image relay for laser mode control. With 1.8 mJ input seed pulses, output pulse energies of around 150 mJ were achieved.     

Diode-pumped passively mode-locked Nd:GdVO4 laser at 912 nm

We have demonstrated the stable mode-locked Nd:GdVO₄ laser operating on the ⁴F_3/2-⁴I_9/2 transition at 912 nm. With a four-mirror-folded cavity and a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror for passive mode-locking, we have gained 6.5 ps laser pulses at a repetition rate of 178 MHz. The laser is diode-end-pumped, and the total output power from the out coupler is 128 mw at an incident pump power of 19.7 W.     

Diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:GdVO4 laser at 1342 nm with V:YAG saturable absorber

We have demonstrated an efficient diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:GdVO₄ laser working at 1342 nm by using an uncoated V³⁺:YAG crystal as the saturable absorber, in which both a-cut and c-cut Nd:GdVO₄ crystals are employed. At the maximum absorbed pump power of 9.45 W, the maximum average output power can reach 519 mW and 441 mW corresponding to the output coupler with different transmission of 3% and 10% by using an a-cut Nd:GdVO₄ crystal at 1342 nm, while the shortest pulse duration could be as low as 21.7 ns and 22.3 ns with the repetition rate of 48.41 kHz and 53.25 kHz by using a c-cut Nd:GdVO₄ crystal, corresponding to the output coupler with different transmission of 3% and 10% at 1342 nm, and the single Q-switched pulse energy are 6.67 uJ and 7.06 uJ, the pulse peak power are 307 W and 316 W, respectively. The experimental results show that c-cut Nd:GdVO₄ laser can generate shorter pulse with higher peak power in comparison with a-cut one.     

Q-switched Nd lasers pumped directly into the F3/2 emitting level

The influence of the direct pumping into the ⁴F_3/2 emitting level on the output characteristics of continuous-wave (CW) pumped, passively or actively (acoustooptic, AO) Q-switched Nd lasers is discussed. In case of passive Q-switching by Cr⁴⁺:YAG saturable absorber (SA) crystal, the change of pumping wavelength from 0.81 μm into the highly-absorbing ⁴F_5/2 level to 0.88 μm into the ⁴F_3/2 level of Nd does not modify the energy of the Q-switch pulse, but increases the pulse repetition rate and the laser average power for the same absorbed pump power. This is demonstrated with 0.81 and 0.88 μm CW laser diode-pumped Nd:YAG and Nd-vanadate lasers with average output power in the watt-level range at 1.06 μm. The effect is explained by the control of passive Q-switching by the intracavity photon flux that is influenced by the pump wavelength and by the initial transmission of the SA crystal. On the other hand, it is discussed and experimentally proved that due to the possibility to control externally the frequency of switching, in case of the AO Q-switched Nd laser the change of the pump wavelength from 0.81 to 0.88 μm increases the pulse energy for a fixed frequency, leading to a corresponding increase of the average laser power.     

Efficient, kHz repetition rate, gain-switched Cr:forsterite laser

We have developed a gain-switched room-temperature Cr:forsterite laser operating at repetition rates of between 1 and 34 kHz, and pumped by a continuous wave, Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. With optimised output coupling, an output pulse energy of 52 μJ was measured at 1.5 kHz repetition rate, corresponding to 11% efficiency and 13% slope efficiency. Threshold pulse energy was 53 μJ. Output power of 370 mW was obtained at 10 kHz repetition rate and 4.4 W pump power. Water cooling was not required for repetition rates up to 10 kHz. In a tunable, folded resonator, the Cr:forsterite wavelength tuned between 1173 and 1338 nm. This laser operated with maximum pulse energy of 34 μJ, efficiency of 13%, and power of 307 mW. The laser output was close to diffraction-limited with M² of 1.2. Received: 6 January 1999 / Published online: 29 July 1999     

Diode-end-pumped linear-polarized single-frequency Tm:YAG laser at room temperature

By using two solid uncoated etalons, we present a diode-pumped linear-polarized single-frequency Tm:YAG laser operating at 2 μm. Placing one 0.1 mm F-P etalon at nearly Brewster angle in the cavity, the linear-polarization laser is achieved. The other 1 mm F-P etalon was turned in the range of very small angle, single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) could be obtained. The maximum output power of linear-polarized single-frequency laser of 60 mW is achieved at the wavelength of 2013 nm. The degree of the polarization is over 30 dB. Long-term frequency stability was also investigated, with the results of wavelength fluctuation about 2.55 × 10⁻¹³ m within 3 min and frequency change about 18.86 MHz, corresponding to a frequency stability of 1.27 × 10⁻⁷.