Compact High—Power Blue Light from a Diode—Pumped Intracavity—Doubled Nd：YAG Laser

We report an efficient continuous wave(cw) operationof 946nm and 473nm laser beams generated from a diodepumped composte Nd:YAG rod.A very simple compact linear cavity was employed with cavity length of 35mm.A composite Nd:YAG laser rod was used to release thermal effects.The maximum cw output of 3.3W at 946nm was obtained with slope efficiency of 22% at incident pump power of 17.5W.By intracavity doubling with an LBO crystal,as much as 590mW of single-ended blue output at 473nm was achieved with an optical-optical conversion efficiency of 3.4%.The total blue output would be 1.06W with overall conversion efficiency of 6.1% if the lasers emitted in both the directions were taken into account.     

Intensity Tuning in Single Mode Microchip Nd：YAG Laser with External Cavity

We investigate the characteristics of intensity tuning in a single mode microchip Nd：YAG laser with an external cavity. The undulation of laser intensity in a period of A/2 change of the internal cavity length is observed. Two different optical feedback cases are performed. One is an external cavity reflector perfectly aligned and the other is an external cavity reflector tilted. However, the fluctuation frequency of laser intensity in a period of A/2 change of the internal cavity length in these two cases is found to be determined by the ratio of external cavity length to internal cavity length. Meanwhile, for the tilted external cavity, the fluctuation frequency is also related to multiple feedbacks in the tilted external cavity.     

Diode-Pumped Passive Q-Switched 946 nm Nd：YAG Laser with a GaAs Saturable Absorber

We report, for the first time to our knowledge, a diode-pumped passive Q-switched 946nm Nd：YAG laser by using a GaAs as saturable absorber. The maximum average output power is 1.24 W at an incident pump power of 15 W, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 10%. Laser pulses with pulse duration of 70ns and repetition rate of 330 kHz are generated.     

Diode-Pumped Self-Q-Switched Cr,Nd：YAG Laser with High Average Output Power

A diode end-pumped self-Q-switched Cr,Nd:YAG laser was established with pulse duration in the range of 8-10ns. The maximum average output power was 4.4 W and the slope efficiency was 27% using an output coupler of R=70%. At pumping power of 17.4 W the laser produces high-quality pulses at 1064 nm in a TEMoo-mode.     

Diode-Pumped Passive Q-Switched 946-nm Nd：YAG Laser with 2.1-W Average Output Power

We demonstrate a diode-pumped passive Q-switched 946nm Nd: YAG laser with a diffusion-bonded composite laser rod and a co-doped Nd, Cr:YAG as saturable absorber. The average output power of 2.1 W is generated at an incident pump power of 14.3 W. The peak power of the Q-switched pulse is 643 W with 80kHz repetition rate and 40.8 ns pulse width. The slope efficiency and optical conversion efficiency are 17.6% and 14.7%, respectively.     

Experimental 511 W Composite Nd：YAG Ceramic Laser

We demonstrate a 511 W laser diode pumped composite Nd：YAG ceramic laser. The optical pumping system is consisted of five laser diode stacked arrays arranged in a pentagonal shape around the ceramic rod whose size is φ6.35×144mm. When the pumping power is 1600 W, the cw laser output up to 511 W at 1064nm can be obtained with a linear piano-piano cavity, and the optical-to-optical efficiency is 31.9%. To our knowledge, this is the highest value of laser output by using a newly invented composite Nd：YAG ceramic rod as the gain medium.     

Intracavity—Doubled Self—Q—Switched Nd,Cr：YAG 946／473nm Microchip Laser

We carried out the operation of an intracavity frequency-doubled self-Q-switched Nd,Cr:YAG/NHbO3 946/473nm microchip laser pumped by a Ti:sapphire laser.The overall cavity length was about 4mm.The maximum average blue power of 12mW was achieved with a repetition rate of 13kHz at an absorbed pump ower of 545mW.The pulses of the 473nm laser had a duration of 7ns and a peak power of 132W at this pump level.The conversion efficiency was 2.2% with respect to the absorbed pump power of a 808nm laser.     

High Efficiency Multi-kW Diode-Side-Pumped Nd：YAG Laser with Reduced Thermal Effect

We demonstrate a high efficiency multi-kW diode-side-pumped Nd：YAG laser. High cooling efficiency of the diode-side-pumped module in the laser is achieved. The middle portion of the Nd：YAG rod in the module is cooled by a coolant jet with screwed side surface, and the end-caps of the rod without screwed side surface are cooled by Au coated on the surface. The thermal effect of the laser rod is reduced, which leads to high output power with high optical-optical conversion efficiency. By using three identical Nd：YAG laser modules, an output power of 4.2 kW and beam quality of 58 mm＆#12539;mrad with an optical-optical efficiency of 35% at 1064 nm is obtained in a laser oscillator. By using four identical Nd：YAG laser modules, an output power of 3.1 kW and beam quality of 17 mm＆#12539;mrad with an optical-optical efficiency of 25.8% is demonstrated in a master oscillator power-amplifier system.     

Conductively cooled 250-Hz single frequency Nd：YAG laser

A conductively cooled, laser diode （LD） end-pumped, injection-seeded single frequency Nd：YAG laser is designed and impleinented. The laser utilizes Nd：YAG rod as gain medium and compact dual-endpumping arrangement using two fiber-coupled LDs with a maximum output of 150 W. The optimized ramp-fire technique is applied to build reliable single longitudinal mode oscillating. The laser is capable of producing a 10-raJ Q-switched pulse with 13-ns pulse width at 1064 nm at a pulse repetition rate of 250 Hz. The output beam qualities M2 of approximately 1.19 and 1.22 in horizontal and vertical directions are detected, respectively.     

High Power Diode-End-Pumped Nd：YAG 946-nm Laser and Its Efficient Frequency Doubling

We report a high power operation of the ^4Fa/2 → ^4I9/2 transition in diode-end-pumped laser at 946nm. The maximum output of 5.1 W is obtained with a short linear plano-concave cavity, and the slope efficiency is 24.5% at incident pump power of 23.3 W. To our knowledge, this is the highest value of the LD-pumped Nd:YAG 946 nm lasers that employ the conversional Nd:YAG rod as the gain medium. By intracavity frequency doubling with an LBO crystal, up to 982mW cw output power in the blue spectral range at 473nm is achieved at an incident pump power of 10.9 W with a compact three-element cavity, leading to optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 9%. The conversion efficiency should be increased to 15.1%, if the rather low absorption coefficient of this Nd:YAG is considered.     

A parametric study of negative feedback Nd:YAG laser

The output pulse parameters of a mode-locked Nd:YAG laser with a passive negative feedback element were studied experimentally. The pulse evolution within the train was experimentally recorded using a modified second harmonic generation autocorrelator. By comparing the laser operation with and without an acousto-optic modulator, we found that with the later there is a significant increase in the mode locking probability and the pulse acquires a temporally Gaussian symmetric pulse shape. Further with the active modulator there is a relaxation in alignment tolerances and increase in the range of permissible dye concentrations for stable mode locking. It was also observed that the pulse width of the negative feedback laser depends on the saturation intensity of the mode locking dye and reduces for a dye with higher saturation intensity. The pulse width was also found to reduce linearly as the initial transmission of the dye is reduced.     

Two-pass amplification of CW laser by Nd/Cr:YAG ceramic Active mirror under lamp light pumping

The concept of an Active mirror with transparent Nd/Cr:YAG ceramics is proposed. A new ceramic material pumped by an arc-metal-halide lamp has been experimentally implemented. CW-laser light generated in a 1064 nm Nd:YAG micro-tip oscillator was amplified by an Active mirror made of Nd/Cr:YAG ceramic and pumped by CW arc-lamp light. The saturation power density of the Nd/Cr:YAG ceramic was lower than that of Nd:YAG because the stimulated-cross-section and lifetime were effectively enhanced by the sensitization of Cr ions. The maximum output laser power while keeping spatial beam quality was up to 3 W with an input lamp power of 9 W; the resulting optical-optical conversion efficiency of 33% was close to the theoretical prediction of nearly 50%.     

Numerical solution and experiment of a self-Q-switched 946 nm Cr,Nd:YAG laser

A LD-pumped self-Q-switched 946 nm laser by using a co-doped Cr,Nd:YAG crystal as a gain medium as well as a saturable absorber is studied. The 946 nm self-Q-switched rate equations of co-doped crystal are solved numerically by Runge–Kutta method directly. The important parameters of lasers, such as average output power, threshold pump power, pulse width, pulses repetition rate, and optimal transmission of output coupler are obtained numerically. Experimentally, the maximum average output power up to 2.61 W, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 23.43%, was obtained in a simple and compact linear cavity. The optical-to-optical efficiency is 17.3% and the peak power is 7.57 kW with repetition rate of 23.78 kHz and pulse width of 14.5 ns. In the experiments, a high-quality fundamental transverse mode can be preserved in a large range of incident pump power. The numerical results of the 946 nm self-Q-switched Cr,Nd:YAG laser are in good agreement with the experimental results.     

Laser pulses amplified by Nd/Cr:YAG ceramic amplifier using lamp and solar light sources

Laser pulses generated in a laser oscillator were amplified by Nd/Cr:YAG ceramic amplifiers. The saturation of output-laser energy was experimentally observed. We found that the stimulated emission cross-section of Nd/Cr:YAG ceramics was effectively increased and the saturation fluence was effectively reduced to 0.1 J/cm² due to the energy transfer between excited Cr and Nd ions. The output-laser energy we calculated was compared with the experimental ones and the extractable stored energy in the Nd/Cr:YAG ceramics was evaluated. This laser material is suitable for high-repetition-rate operations because of the high laser gain with low pumping intensity and low effective saturation fluence.     

100 W, single-frequency operation of an injection-locked Nd:YAG laser

We have built a single-frequency Nd:YAG laser capable of producing an output power of 101 W by injection locking a slave laser that can emit an output power of 121 W in the free-running state to a 2-W master laser. We confirmed that the output mode was diffraction limited and linearly polarized.     

120 watt continuous wave solar-pumped laser with a liquid light-guide lens and an Nd:YAG rod

We propose a simple and efficient pumping approach for a high-power solar-pumped laser by using a liquid light-guide lens (LLGL) and a hybrid pumping cavity. A 2×2 m Fresnel lens is used as a primary concentrator to collect natural sunlight; 120 W cw laser power and a 4.3% total slope efficiency are achieved with a 6-mm diameter Nd:YAG rod within a 14-mm diameter LLGL. The corresponded collection efficiency is 30.0 W/m(2), which is 1.5 times larger than the previous record. This result is unexpectedly better than that of Cr:Nd:YAG ceramics. It is because the scattering coefficient of Cr:Nd:YAG ceramics is 0.004cm(1), which is 2 times larger than that of the Nd:YAG crystal, although both have similar saturation gains.     

Luminescence properties of highly Cr co-doped Nd:YAG powder produced by sol-gel method

We examined luminescence properties of highly chromium co-doped Nd:YAG powders fabricated by the sol-gel method. Though the maximum luminescence intensity of Cr:YAG was at 3.0 mol% of Cr³⁺ concentration, we found that the enhancement effect on Nd:YAG by co-doping Cr³⁺ was continued until 6.0 mol% of Cr³⁺ concentration. This phenomenon is well-explained by a simple energy transfer model derived from the rate equations between Cr³⁺ and Nd³⁺. The enhancement of sensitization for Nd³⁺ activator by high co-doped Cr³⁺ is very effective for making a miniaturized or thin film-type solar laser.     

Diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser using reflective pump optics

We have examined the performance of a diode-laser side-pumped Nd:YAG laser using elliptical mirrors to focus the output of 6 × 10 W laser-diode arrays into the Nd: YAG rod. The multimode cw output power was 14 W with an optical to optical efficiency of 29%. With a resonator designed for TEM₀₀ mode operation 12 W of output was achieved.     

Pre-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:YAG/Cr:YAG microchip laser

A pre-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:YAG/Cr:YAG microchip laser is demonstrated with a peak power of 7.5 kW at pulse repetition rate of serveral kilohertzs. The full-width at half-maximum(FWHM)is 734 ps, and the pulse energy is 5.5 μJ with a fundamental spatial mode. In this system, the pre-pumped microchip laser of Nd:YAG/Cr:YAG wafer which is bonded through the thermal-bonding technique has achieved a time jitter value of 12 μs and a Q-switched amplitude instability of 1.26％(15)through the pre-pumped modulation technique.     

Nd,Cr:YAG自调Q自锁模激光器的研究

实验采用光纤耦合激光二极管泵浦,得到了二极管泵浦Nd,CrYAG自调Q自锁模1.064 μm激光输出,其锁模调制深度达到了近100%,其输出功率最高可达1.9 W,平均输出功率稳定性优于1%.实验表明平均输出功率、重复频率和脉冲宽度随泵浦功率增加而上升.