Diode-pumped continuous-wave Nd:YAP laser emitting at 1073 nm based on the 4F3/2-4I11/2 transition

We describe the output performances of the 1073 nm ⁴ F _3/2 → ⁴ I _11/2 transition (generally used for a 1064 nm transition) in Nd³⁺:YAlO₃ (Nd:YAP) under in-band pumping with diode laser at the 803 nm wavelength. An end-pumped Nd:YAP crystal yielded 390 mW of continuous-wave (CW) output power for 17.8 W of incident pump power. Moreover, intracavity second-harmonic generation has also been achieved with a power of 38 mW at 536 nm by using a LiB₃O₅ (LBO) nonlinear crystal. The green beam quality factor M ² was less than 1.33. The blue power stability was less 3.5% in 4 h.     

Efficient Nd:Y0.5Gd0.5VO4-KTiOPO4 green laser under diode pumping into the emitting level 4F3/2

We report a green laser at 532 nm generation by intracavity frequency doubling of a continuous wave (cw) laser operation of a 1064 nm Nd:Y_0.5Gd_0.5VO₄ laser under diode pumping into the emitting level ⁴ F _3/2. A KTiOPO₄ (KTP) crystal, cut for critical type-II phase matching at room temperature is used for second harmonic generation (SHG) of the laser. At an incident pump power of 17.8 W, as high as 4.21 W of cw output power at 532 nm is achieved. The optical-to-optical conversion efficiency is up to 23.6%, and the fluctuation of the green output power was better than 2.8% in the given 30 min.     

Diode-pumped Nd:LGS laser emitting at 888 nm

We present what is, to the best of our knowledge, the first diode-pumped Nd:La₃Ga₅SiO₁₄ (Nd:LGS) laser emitting at 888 nm, based on the ⁴ F _3/2-⁴ I _9/2 transition, generally used for a 904 nm emission. The use of a pump module with 16 passes through the crystal allowed the realization of a Nd:LGS thin-disk laser with 1.41 W of continuous wave (cw) output power at 888 nm. Moreover, intracavity second-harmonic generation (SHG) in cw mode has also been demonstrated with a power of 221 mW at 444 nm by using a BiB₃O₆ (BiBO) nonlinear crystal.     

Diode-pumped doubly Q-switched mode-locked YVO4/Nd:YVO4 laser with AO and GaAs saturable absorber

By using both acousto-optic (AO) modulator and GaAs saturable absorber, a diode-pumped doubly Q-switched and mode-locked (QML) YVO₄/Nd:YVO₄ laser is presented. The average output power and the pulse width of the Q-switched envelope have been measured. The Q-switch pulse energy of the doubly QML laser are higher than that only with GaAs. The stability of the QML laser with the dual-loss-modulation is significantly improved if compared to that only with GaAs.The experimental results show that the doubly QML YVO₄/Nd:YVO₄ laser has nearly 80% modulation depth and deeper than that of the singly passively QML pulse. The doubly Q-switched mode-locked pulse inside the Q-switched envelope has a repetition rate of 111 MHz and its pulse width is estimated to be about 700 ps. By using a hyperbolic secant square function and considering the Gaussian distribution of the intracavity photon density, the coupled equations for diode-pumped dual-loss-modulated QML laser is given and the numerical solutions of the equations are in good agreement with the experimental results.     

Compact diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 intracavity-doubled red laser at 671 nm

A design of diode-pumped high efficiency Nd:YVO₄/LBO laser with a compact linear cavity was reported. Employing a type-II noncritical phase-matched LBO crystal, we generated 520 mW of 671 nm in single transverse mode at 6 W of incident pump power, the optical conversion efficiency being 8.7%.     

Oscillation conditions of cw simultaneous dual-wavelength Nd：YAG laser for transitions 4F3／2-4I9／2 and 4F3／2-4I11／2

The operating condition of a cw simultaneous dual-wavelength Nd:YAG laser for both {}^4F_{3/2}-{}^4I_{9/2} (quasi-three-level system) and {}^4F_{3/2}-{}^4I_{11/2}(four-level system) transitions is studied. According to this condition, the cw simultaneous dual-wavelength at 1.06μm and 946 nm in Nd:YAG crystal has been realized experimentally through an adaptive coating design of the cavity mirrors. A total power output of 2.5W of the dual-wavelength at 946nm and 1.06μm has been achieved with an optical conversion efficiency 14.3%. The experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical analysis.     

1097 nm Nd:YVO4 self-Raman laser

An acousto-optically Q-switched self-Raman laser emitting at 1097 nm is demonstrated with a c-cut Nd:YVO₄ crystal, using a fiber-coupled 880 nm diode laser as the pumping source. Raman laser performances in concave-plane and plane-plane oscillating cavities are studied and compared. With an absorbed diode power of 12.4 W and a pulse repetition rate of 50 kHz, the highest output power of 1.45 W is obtained from the plane-plane cavity, corresponding to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 11.7%.     

Diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser emitting at 899 nm and below

We present what is, to the best of our knowledge, the first diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser emitting at 899 nm and below, based on the (4)F(3/2) - (4)I(9/2) transition, generally used for a 946 nm emission. A power of 630 mW at 899 nm has been achieved in cw operation and 16 mW at 884 nm with a fiber-coupled laser diode emitting 9 W at 808 nm. Intracavity second-harmonic generation in cw mode has also been demonstrated with a power of 100 mW at 450 nm by using a LiB(3)O(5) nonlinear crystal.     

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.     

Diode-pumped intra-cavity doubled Nd:LuVO4 laser at 458 nm

We have demonstrated a diode-pumped intra-cavity frequency doubling Nd:LuVO₄ laser operating at 916 nm with a Z-folded cavity. A 10-mm long LBO crystal, cut for critical type I phase matching at 912 nm, is used for the experiment. A maximum output power of 330 mW at 458 nm has been achieved at pump power of 22 W. The optical-to-optical conversion efficiency and slope efficiency is 1.5% and 2.3%, respectively. The power instability at the maximum output power in 30 min is better than 3%.     

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 Nd:YVO4-Nd:CNGG crystals blue laser at 462 nm by intracavity sum-frequency-mixing

We report a laser architecture to obtain continuous-wave (cw) blue radiation at 462 nm. A 808 nm diode-pumped the Nd:YVO₄ crystal emitting at 914 nm. A part of the pump power was then absorbed by the Nd:YVO₄ crystal. The remaining was used to pump the Nd:CNGG crystal emitting at 935 nm. Intracavity sum-frequency mixing at 914 and 935 nm was then realized in a LiB₃O₅ (LBO) crystal to reach the blue radiation. We obtained a continuous-wave output power of 892 mW at 462 nm with a pump laser diode emitting 18.4 W at 808 nm.     

28.2 W波长锁定878.6 nm激光二极管共振抽运双晶体1064 nm激光器

报道了一种由波长锁定878.6 nm半导体激光器共振抽运两块不同掺杂浓度Nd:YVO4晶体串接的1064nm激光器,并与使用单块的低掺杂浓度晶体和高掺杂浓度晶体情况进行比较,实验表明利用波长锁定878.6nm半导体激光器共振抽运双晶体串接的方式,有利于降低晶体的热效应,提高光光转换效率.当抽运功率为40 W时,获得了28.2 W的1064 nm激光输出,光光转换率为70.5%,斜率效率为70.6%,相对吸收光的光光转换率76%,斜率效率为76.4%,同时该激光器在10?C—40?C的温度变化范围内具有极好的温度稳定性.     

Efficient and high-power laser-diode single-end-pumped Nd：YVO4 continuous wave laser at 1342nm

A compact, efficient and high-power laser diode （LD） single-end-pumped Nd：YVO4 laser with continuous-wave emission at 1342 nm is reported. With a single crystal single-end-pumped by fibre-coupled LD array, an output power of 7.36W is obtained from the laser cavity of concave-convex shape, corresponding to an optical-to-optical efficiency of 32.8%. The laser is operated in TEM00 mode with small rms amplitude noise of 0.3%. The influences of the Nd concentration, transmissivity of the output mirror and the cavity length on the output power have been studied experimentally.     

Passively Q-switched laser operation in a composite Nd:YVO4/Nd:YVO4/Nd:YVO4 crystal with a GaAs saturable absorber

By using a piece of GaAs wafer as the saturable absorber, the performance of the passively Q-switched composite Nd:YVO₄ laser with different output couplers has been demonstrated for the first time as far as we know. The largest continuous wave output power of 1.52 W is obtained at the incident pump power of 5.31 W, giving an optical conversion efficiency of 28.7% and a slope efficiency of 30.2%. The shortest pulse width of 11 ns, the largest single-pulse energy of 2.49 μJ and the highest peak power of 190 W are also obtained.     

LD泵浦Nd:YVO4双波长运转腔内和频491 nm激光器

分析了Nd:YVO4激光器实现双波长运转及腔内和频的条件,利用一种LD泵浦Nd:YVO4晶体产生1 064 nm和914 nm双波长激光束,采用一个线性平凹腔结构,利用腔内Ⅰ类临界相位匹配LBO和频,获得了连续波输出的全固态激光器。实验采用端面结构,在5.0 W的808 nm泵浦功率下,获得了最高功率为2.5 mW连续波TEM00的激光输出,光-光转换效率为0.05%。     

High-efficiency longitudinally-pumped miniature Nd:YVO4 laser

We report on fundamental and intracavity frequency-doubled emission in a miniature Nd:YVO₄ (3×3×1 mm) laser. A maximum slope efficiency of η_s=58.6%, with optical efficiency of η₀=53.0% at 780 mW pump power was realized in a TEM₀₀ output beam. To obtain the optimum pump-beam focusing conditions we applied a new formalism in which the pump-beam propagation in the active medium was described by its M² factor. A good agreement between theoretical predictions and experimental results was observed. In second-harmonic regime, obtained by a KTP crystal, 230 mW green power that corresponds to 54% nonlinear conversion efficiency was reached.     

2.23 W diode-pumped Nd:YVO4/LBO Laser at 671 nm

A fiber-coupled diode-array-pumped, intracavity frequency doubled by a LBO crystal, high-power Nd:YVO₄ red laser at 671 nm has been developed in this paper. With incident pump power of 10.6 W, employing a type-I critical phase-matched LBO crystal, 2.23 W single-transverse-mode red light at 671 nm was obtained, with optical-to-optical conversion efficiency up to 21.0%.     

纳秒电光调Q Nd:YVO4激光器

介绍了一种新颖的短腔电光调Q窄脉宽激光器,通过分析影响脉宽的主要因素,确定了激光器的结构及参数。在准连续端面泵浦条件下,采用掺杂原子分数为1.0%、沿a轴切成布儒斯特角的Nd:YVO4晶体作为增益介质,直接获得偏振光振荡,有效缩短了腔长。在物理腔长20 mm时,采用退压式电光主动调Q结构,减小了插入损耗,获得了脉冲宽度为1.049 ns、单脉冲能量为0.32 mJ、光束质量平方因子为1.9的稳定激光输出。     

High-efficiency Nd:YVO4 laser emission under direct pumping at 880 nm

We report a high-efficiency Nd:YVO₄ laser pumped by an all-solid-state Q-switched Ti:Sapphire laser at 880 nm in this paper. Output power at 1064 nm with different-doped Nd:YVO₄ crystals of 0.4-, 1.0- and 3.0-at.% under the 880 nm pumping was measured, respectively. Comparative results obtained by the traditional pumping at 808 nm into the highly absorbing ⁴F_5/2 level were presented, showing that the slope efficiency and the threshold with respect to the absorbed pump power of the 1.0-at.% Nd:YVO₄ laser under the 880 nm pumping was 17.5% higher and 11.5% lower than those of 808 nm pumping. In a 4-mm-thick, 1.0-at.% Nd:YVO₄ crystal, a high slope efficiency of 75% was achieved under the 880 nm pumping, with an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 52.4%.