Efficient, multiwatt, continuous-wave laser operation on the (4)F((3/2))-(4)I((9/2)) transitions of Nd:YVO(4) and Nd:YAG

We report multiwatt, diode-pumped cw operation on the (4)F(3/2)-(4)I(9/2) laser transition at 914.5 nm in Nd:YVO(4), for which an output power of 3.0 W and a slope of efficiency of 22.8% were achieved. For the corresponding laser transition of Nd:YAG at 946 nm an output power of 5.35 W and a slope efficiency of 40.2% were measured. By intracavity frequency doubling, an output power of 1.5 W at 473 nm was generated.     

Optimally-output-coupled, 17.5 W,fiber-laser-pumped continuous-wave optical parametric oscillator

We present a stable, high-power, fiber-laser-pumped, continuous-wave (cw), singly resonant optical parametric oscillator (SRO) for the mid-infrared in an output-coupled (OC) configuration, providing 17.5 W of total output power at 61% extraction efficiency. Using a single-frequency, cw Yb fiber laser at 1064 nm and a 50-mm-long MgO:PPLN crystal, through optimization of signal output coupling we generate up to 9.8 W of signal power in the near-infrared together with 7.7 W of idler power for 28.6 W of pump, while in the absence of output coupling, 8.6 W of idler power is generated for the same pump power at 30% efficiency. The SRO is tunable over 360 nm in the idler range. The deployment of signal output coupling results in a total tuning of 513 nm (120 nm of signal, 393 nm of idler) over which watt-level output power can be extracted. Through careful control of thermal effects we achieve a long-term peak-to-peak idler power stability of 5% over 14 hours near room temperature. The output beams have TEM₀₀ spatial profile with M ²<1.28 for the idler and M ²<1.37 for the signal.     

CW dye laser operation at 200 W pump power

A continuously operating jet stream dye laser was pumped by a multiwavelength-multimode argon-ion-laser with a pump power up to 200 W. Rhodamine 6G-chloride was dissolved in a water-polyvinylalcohol-ammonyx solution. The dye laser was prism-tunable between 560 and 650 nm with maximum output power at 600 nm. The maximum output power of the cw dye laser was 43 W without tuning element and 33 W with a prism placed inside the cavity. Operation of a jet stream dye laser with a pump power higher than 200 W and an efficiency of about 30% seems to be possible.     

高效率Nd:YVO4/LBO临界相位匹配脉冲绿光激光器

报道了一种利用激光二极管（LD）端面泵浦Nd:YVO4晶体,声光调Q,LBO临界相位匹配腔内倍频的高效率、小体积、风冷绿光激光器。分析了不同偏振光泵浦的情况下,激光晶体对泵浦光的吸收特性。由分析得出,采用部分偏振光泵浦,可以提高激光晶体对泵浦光吸收均匀性,改善基波畸变,获得高转换效率激光输出。实验中,在泵浦光功率为33 W、声光调Q重复频率为20 kHz时,得到脉宽为23.96 ns、平均功率为15 W的1064 nm基频光输出。经倍频后,得到平均功率为11.2 W的绿光输出,倍频效率为74.6%,总体光-光转换效率为34%。在输出功率为10 W时,测得1 h内输出功率不稳定度为0.512 2%,水平方向和竖直方向的光束质量因子M2分别为1.2和1.1。     

High-power tunable single-frequency single-mode erbium:ytterbium codoped large-core fiber master-oscillator power amplifier source

We present a cladding-pumped single-frequency, single-mode erbium:ytterbium codoped fiber master-oscillator power amplifier source generating up to 151 W of continuous-wave output power at 1563 nm with 33% slope efficiency and 20 dB gain. This source was also tunable and had a stable operation range of 1546 to 1566 nm at an output power level in excess of 125 W. The doped fiber exploited a large-core design for improved power handling and mitigation of stimulated Brillouin scattering. There was no sign of having stimulated Brillouin scattering even at the highest power. Despite a large core (V = 12), the output beam was nearly diffraction limited (M2 = 1.1). The source showed slight rollover at over 100 W of output power because of the onset of emission from ytterbium, centered at 1060 nm.     

Holmium laser in-band pumped by a thulium laser in the same host of YAlO3

We report on the room-temperature continuous-wave (CW) operation of a Ho:YAlO₃ laser that is resonantly end pumped at 1.94 μm by a diode-pumped thulium-doped laser in the same host. Through the use of a 1 at % Ho³⁺-doped 20-mm-long YAlO₃ crystal (b cut), the Ho:YAlO₃ laser generated 1 W of linearly polarized (E//c) output at 2118 nm and 0.55 W of E//a output at 2128.5 nm for an incident pump power of 5 W, with an output coupler transmission of 14 and 3%, respectively. An optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 20% and a slope efficiency of 33% were achieved at 2118 nm corresponding to an incident pump power.     

Efficient, resonantly pumped, room-temperature Er3+:GdVO4 laser

We report an efficient room-temperature operation of a resonantly pumped Er3+:GdVO4 laser at 1598.5 nm. The maximum continuous wave (CW) output power of 3.5 W with slope efficiency of 56% was achieved with resonant pumping by an Er-fiber laser at 1538.6 nm. With pumping by a commercial laser diode bar stack, a quasi-CW (QCW) output of 7.7 W and maximum slope efficiency of ~53% versus absorbed pump power were obtained. This is believed to be the first resonantly (in-band) pumped, room-temperature Er3+:GdVO4 laser.     

Highly efficient, high-power, broadly tunable, cryogenically cooled and diode-pumped Yb:CaF2

We present a high-power diode-pumped Yb:CaF(2) laser operating at cryogenic temperature (77 K). A laser output power of 97 W at 1034 nm was extracted for a pump power of 245 W. The corresponding global extraction efficiency (versus absorbed pump power) is 65%. The laser small signal gain was found to be equal to 3.1. The laser wavelength could be tuned between 990 and 1052 nm with peaks that correspond well to the structure of the gain cross-section spectra registered at low temperature.     

36 W侧面抽运腔内倍频Nd:YAG/KTP连续绿光激光器

通过优化平-凹-平三镜折叠腔结构设计,利用大功率半导体激光器侧面抽运、Ⅱ类相位匹配KTP晶体腔内倍频,获得高效高功率连续绿色激光输出.当抽运电流约为36 A时,得到最高36.6 W的连续绿光激光输出,对应的光—光转换效率为8.71％.在输出功率33 W时测量激光功率稳定性,其功率不稳定度为0.27%.用刀口法测量了激光器高输出功率时的光束质量,光束质量因子小于8.对高功率抽运情况下三镜折叠腔的像散补偿、失调灵敏度和基模在腔内分布情况做了数值模拟. 关键词： 侧面抽运 腔内倍频 连续波     

High-power, continuous-wave, singly resonant optical parametric oscillator based on MgO:sPPLT

We report a high-power, widely tunable, cw singly resonant optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on MgO:sPPLT. The OPO is pumped in the green by a cw diode-pumped Nd:YVO(4) laser at 532 nm and can provide continuously tunable output across 848-1430 nm. Using a 30 mm crystal and double-pass pumping, an oscillation threshold of 2.88 W has been obtained, and single-pass idler powers in excess of 1.51 W have been generated over 1104-1430 nm for 6W of pump power at an extraction efficiency of 25.2% and photon conversion efficiency of 56.7%.     

半导体泵浦铷蒸气激光器国内首次出光北大核心CSCD

采用体光栅对商用线阵半导体激光器进行线宽压缩,得到线宽0.1nm、中心波长780.2nm、最高连续输出功率80W的泵浦激光输出。为了降低热效应,通过外加斩波器将泵浦光转化为脉冲模式,脉宽440μs,占空比为1∶5。采用长度为5mm的铷金属饱和蒸气作为增益介质,并在常温下充入33kPa乙烷和47kPa氦气,进行了出光实验。在泵浦峰值功率35.4W,铷吸收池温度120℃时,得到峰值功率600mW的795nm铷激光输出,斜率效率为1.7%。     

Laser spectrum of a high power Tm,Ho:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser

In this paper, we report a 18.8 W continuous wave and 18.4 W Q-switched diode-pumped cryogenic Tm(5 at %), Ho(0.5 at %):GdVO₄ laser. The pumping source of Tm, Ho:GdVO₄ laser is a fiber-coupled laser diode with fiber core diameter of 0.4 mm, supplying 42 W power at 802.5 nm. For input pump power of 41.9 W at 802.4 nm, the output power of 18.8 W in CW operation, optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 45% at 2.05 μm and the average output power of 18.4 W in Q-switched operation, optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 44% at 2.04 and 2.05 μm have been attained. The emission wavelengths of the Tm(5 at %), Ho(0.5 at %):GdVO₄ laser were firstly compared when it worked in CW mode and Q-switched mode.     

Multicrystal, continuous-wave, single-pass second-harmonic generation with 56% efficiency

We report a simple and compact implementation for single-pass second-harmonic-generation (SP-SHG) of cw laser radiation, based on a cascaded multicrystal (MC) scheme, that can provide the highest conversion efficiency at any given fundamental power. By deploying a suitable number of identical 30-mm-long MgO:sPPLT crystals in a cascade and a 30W cw Yb-fiber laser at 1064nm as the fundamental source, we demonstrate SP-SHG into the green with a conversion efficiency as high as 56% in the low-power as well as the high-power regime, providing 5.6W of green output for 10W and 13W of green output for 25.1W of input pump power. The MC scheme permits substantial increase in cw SP-SHG efficiency compared to the conventional single-crystal scheme without compromising performance with regard to power stability and beam quality.     

Linearly polarized, 3.35 W narrow-linewidth, 1150 nm fiber master oscillator power amplifier for frequency doubling to the yellow

A high-power linearly polarized Yb-doped silica fiber master oscillator power amplifier at 1150 nm is reported. It produced 3.35 W cw and 2.33 W of average power in 1 micros pulses at a 100 kHz repetition rate, both with 8 pm linewidth. This is the first report, to the best of our knowledge, of a high-power Yb-doped fiber amplifier at a wavelength longer than 1135 nm. The pulsed output was frequency doubled in a bulk periodically poled near-stoichiometric LiTaO(3) chip to generate 976 mW of average power at 575 nm with an overall system optical-to-optical efficiency of 9.8% with respect to launched pump power.     

3.6-W cryogenic Tm,Ho:YLF laser pumped by fiber-coupled diodes module

In this paper, we report a high power cryogenic cooling Tm(6 at.-%),Ho(0.5 at.-%):YLF laser end-pumped by a 19-fiber-coupled-diodes module with the central wavelength of 792 nm at 20°. The highest continuouswave power of 3.6 W at 2.051 μm is attained under pumping power of 13.6 W, corresponding to opticaloptical conversion efficiency of 26%, and the slope efficiency is larger than 30%. The threshold power is only about 0.16 W because of the long lifetime, large effective emission cross section, and low re-absorption in Tm,Ho:YLF crystal.     

8.9-W continuous-wave, diode-end-pumped all-solid-state Nd:YVO4 laser operating at 914 nm

A high power laser-diode-array end-pumped 0.2 at % Nd:YVO₄ continuous-wave (CW) laser operating at 914 nm is reported in this letter. The maximum output power of 8.9 W was obtained at the incident pump power of 48.0 W, giving the corresponding optical efficiency of 18.5% and the average slope efficiency of 25.7%. The beam quality factor was measured to be M ² = 2.71 at the output power of 8.0 W by the traveling knife-edge method.     

A high power CW Ho,Tm:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser

In this paper, we report a 22.7 W continuous wave (CW) diode-pumped cryogenic Ho( at %), Tm(3 at %):GdVO₄ laser. The pumping sources of Ho,Tm:GdVO₄ laser are two fiber-coupled laser diodes with fiber core diameter of 0.4 mm, both of them can supply 42 W power laser operating near 802 nm. For input pump power of 64.7 W at 802.5 nm, the output power of 22.7 W in CW operation, optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 35.1% at 2.05 μm has been attained. The M ² factor was found to be 2.0 under an output power of 16.5 W.     

Nd:GdVO4 self-Raman laser using double-end polarised pumping at 880 nm for high power infrared and visible output

We report and evaluate a novel double-end polarised 880?nm pumping scheme for a Nd:GdVO₄ self-Raman laser, aimed at efficiently generating high output powers in the near-infrared and visible. Compared to conventional single-end pumping, this pump scheme has significant benefits in terms of absorption efficiency, temperature effects in the crystal, and mode-matching between the pumping beam and TEM₀₀ resonator mode. The maximum first-Stokes output powers were 4.1?W for CW operation and 5.63?W for quasi-CW (50?% duty-cycle) operation, with the diode-Stokes conversion efficiency of 11.2?% and 10.3?%, respectively. Visible emission was also realised by intra-cavity frequency-doubling (586.5?nm) or sum-frequency-generation (559?nm) using BBO or LBO crystals. For CW operation, the maximum output power was 3.46?W at 586.5?nm and 4.05?W at 559?nm, with diode-visible conversion efficiency of 10.7?% and 12.5?%; while for quasi-CW operation (50?% duty-cycle), the maximum output peak power was 6.5?W at 586.5?nm and 9.2?W at 559?nm, corresponding to 13.1?% and 18.9?% diode-visible conversion efficiency.     

High repetition rate,high peak power acousto-optical Q-switched 946 nm Nd:YAG laser

A diode-end-pumped high repetition rate, high peak power acousto-optical (AO) Q-switched 946 nm Nd:YAG laser was demonstrated in this paper. In our experiments, a 20 mm miniature acousto-optical Q-switch was employed in a 45 mm linear laser cavity for generating the short laser pulse. At a repetition rate of 10 kHz, a maximum average output power of 2.9 W was achieved with a pulse width of 24.4 ns, giving a peak power of 11.9 kW. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest peak power 946 nm Nd:YAG laser at high repetition rate operation. Moreover, pulse train with good stability was also obtained at the repetition rate of 50 kHz. At an incident pump power of 22.3 W, up to an average output power of 3.5 W pulsed 946 nm laser was generated at 50 kHz with a pulse width of 69 ns, corresponding to an optical conversion efficiency of 15.7% and an average slope efficiency of 24.1%, respectively.     

Highly-Efficient Ho:S<Subscript>i</Subscript>Sc<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>5</Subscript> Laser Pumped by a Narrow Line-Width Tm:YAP Laser at 1.94 <Emphasis Type="Italic">μ</Emphasis>m

We present a highly-efficient continuous-wave Ho:SSO laser pumped by a diode-pumped Tm:YAP laser with a narrow linewidth (NL) of 0.3 nm. With the free-running (FR) Tm:YAP laser, we obtain a maximum output power of 2.23 W at an absorption pump power of 7.2 W, corresponding to an optical conversion efficiency of 31% and a slope efficiency of 42.6%. With the NL Tm:YAP laser, we obtain a maximum output power of 2.88 W at the same absorption pump power. The optical conversion efficiency increases to 40% when the slope efficiency increases to 55.5%. The output linewidth of the Ho:SSO laser is 0.8 nm when we use the Tm:YAP laser with a narrow linewidth of 1.8 nm pumped by a FR Tm:YAP laser. The beam quality also changes from 1.31 to 1.22.