A comparative study on diode-pumped single-frequency Tm:YAG and Tm:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> lasers

In this paper, we present experimental results concerning on the laser characteristics of Tm:YAG laser and Tm: GdVO₄ laser. At room temperature, the maximum output power of Tm:YAG laser and Tm:GdVO₄ laser is 210 and 145 mW, respectively. High efficiency can be achieved for both lasers at room temperature. Nevertheless, compared with Tm:GdVO₄ laser, Tm:YAG laser can operate on single frequency with high power easily. As much as 60 mW of 2013.9 nm single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) laser was achieved for Tm:YAG laser. For Tm:GdVO₄ laser 51 mW of 1919.7 nm SLM laser was achieved. The SLM Tm:YAG laser is better for using as a seed laser for coherent wind measurements and differential absorption LIDAR systems.     

Diode-pumped doubly Q-switched Nd:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser

By using both an acoustooptical (AO) modulator and a Cr⁴⁺:YAG saturable absorber in the cavity, a diode-pumped doubly Q-switched Nd:GdVO₄ laser, which can generate short pulses with high peak powers and symmetric temporal profiles, has been demonstrated. A peak power of 3.05 kW with a corresponding pulse width of 16 ns has been achieved at an incident pump power of 7.7 W. A reasonable analysis about the experimental results has been given by considering the ground-state absorption and excited-state absorption of a Cr⁴⁺:YAG crystal.     

A comparative study on diode-pumped continuous wave Tm:Ho:YVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> and Tm:Ho:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> lasers

In this paper, we presented experimental results concerning on the laser characteristics of two microchip lasers emitting in the 2 μm range, Tm:Ho:YVO₄ microchip laser and Tm:Ho:GdVO₄ microchip laser. At a heat sink temperature of 283 K, the maximum output power of Tm:Ho:YVO₄ laser and Tm:Ho:GdVO₄ laser is 47 and 34 mW under absorbed pump power of 912 mW, respectively. High efficiency can be achieved for both lasers at room temperature. Nevertheless, compared with Tm:Ho:GdVO₄ laser, Tm:Ho:YVO₄ laser can operate on single frequency with high power easily. At the heat sink temperature of 288 K, as much as 16.5 mW of 2052.3 nm single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) laser was achieved for Tm:Ho:YVO₄ laser. Under the same condition, only 8 mW of 2048.5 nm SLM laser was achieved for Tm:Ho:GdVO₄ laser.     

Diode-pumped single-frequency Tm:YAG laser with double etalons

A diode end-pumped single-frequency Tm:YAG laser at room temperature is reported. The maximal output power of single-frequency is as high as 60 mW by using two uncoated fused YAG etalons, which are respectively 0.1 and 1.0 mm thick. We obtained a single frequency Tm:YAG laser at 2013.91 nm. The change of the lasing wavelength on temperature was also measured. The single-longitudinal-mode laser can be used as a seed laser for coherent wind measurements and differential absorption LIDAR systems.     

Room temperature diode-pumped 1875.1 nm Tm:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser

A diode end-pumped single-frequency Tm:GdVO₄ laser at room temperature was reported. The maximal output power of single-frequency is as high as 66 mW by using two uncoated fused etalons, which are respectively 0.05 mm thick YAG and 1 mm thick quartz. We obtained the single frequency Tm:GdVO₄ laser at 1875.1 nm. The slope efficiency is 1.5%. The change of the lasing wavelength on temperature was also measured. The single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) laser can be used as a seed laser for coherent wind measurements and differential absorption LIDAR systems.     

Diode-pumped Actively Q-switched Nd:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> Green Laser with Periodically Poled KTP

A diode-pumped actively Q-switched Nd:GdVO₄ green laser with periodically poled KTP (PPKTP) and Acoustic-optic (AO) modulator has been realized. The dependences of pulse energy, pulse width, and peak power on incident pump power are measured. At the pump power of 4.1 W and repetition rate of 10 kHZ, we can obtain a 19.2 ns pulse with pulse energy of 0.11 mJ and peak power of 5.8 kW, which are almost three times of that in the conventional KTP green laser, respectively. A rate equation model is introduced to theoretically analyze the results obtained in the experiment, in which the Gaussian spatial distribution of the intracavity photon density is taken into account. The numerical solutions of the rate equations agree with the experimental results.     

diode-pumped single-frequency Tm:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser at 1897.6 nm

A diode end-pumped Tm:GdVO₄ laser at room temperature is reported. The maximal output power of single-frequency is as high as 34 mW by using two uncoated fused etalons, which are respectively 0.05 mm thick YAG and 1mm thick quartz. We obtained the single frequency Tm:GdVO₄ laser at 1897.6 nm with the slope efficiency of 1.3%. The single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) laser can be used as a seed laser for coherent wind measurements and differential absorption LIDAR systems.     

Diode-pumped passively mode-locked Nd:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser with a GaAs saturable absorber mirror

We report on a diode end-pumped passively mode-locked Nd:GdVO₄ laser. By using a GaAs wafer simultaneously as the saturable absorber and the output coupler, stable continuous-wave mode locking was achieved. The pulse width was measured to be 18.9 picoseconds at a repetition rate of 370 MHz. The most remarkable property of the laser is that its repetition rate can be changed from 370 MHz to 3.348 GHz by simply changing the cavity length. An average output power of 3.46 W at a 3.348 GHz repetition rate was obtained with a 14 W pump power. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a passively mode-locked Nd:GdVO₄ laser using a GaAs wafer as the saturable absorber. PACS 42.55.Rz; 42.60.Fc; 42.55.Xi.     

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.     

Diode-pumped simultaneously Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript>/LBO red Laser

A diode-end-pumped simultaneously Q-switched and mode-locked intracavity frequency doubled Nd:GdVO₄/LBO red laser with an acousto-optic Q-switch was realized. The maximum red laser output power of 250 mW was obtained at the incident pump power of 8.3 W and the repetition rate of 10 kHz. At 5 kHz, the maximum mode-locking modulation depth of about 80% was achieved with the Q-switched pulse width of 440 ns. The red mode-locked pulse inside the Q-switched pulse had a repetition rate of 115 MHz, its average pulse width was estimated to be about 350 ps.     

A single-longitudinal-mode CW 0.25 mm Tm,Ho:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> Microchip Laser

A single-longitudinal-mode of 0.25 mm Tm,Ho:GdVO₄ Microchip Laser was reported. The maximal continuous wave (CW) output power was 26.4 mW and the threshold of 118 mW. The Tm,Ho:GdVO₄ Microchip Laser output wavelength was centered at 2039.7598 nm with bandwidth of about 57.1 pm. The beam quality factor was M ² ∼ 1.52 ± 0.03 measured by knife-edge method. The Longitudinal-Mode was scanned by a FPI and the transverse mode was monitored by an infrared vidicon camera.     

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.     

High-power,high-quality ZGP OPO pumped by a Tm,Ho:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser

We report a ZGP OPO system capable of producing >6 W at a signal wavelength of 3.80 μm and an idler wavelength of 4.45 μm. The pumping source is the Tm,Ho:GdVO₄ laser operated at 2.049 μm with an M ² of 1.07. The ZGP OPO generated a total combined output power of 6.1 W at signal wavelength and idler wavelength under pumping power of 18.3 W, and an M ² of 1.7 for OPO output was obtained.     

Comparison of RTP electro-optic Q-switch and acousto-optic Q-switch in Tm,Ho:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser

We demonstrate a tunable, narrow linewidth, linearly polarized and gain-switched Cr²⁺:ZnSe laser pumped by a Tm, Ho:YVO₄ laser at 10 kHz pulse repetition frequency. By setting a quartz birefringent filter with a Brewster angle in the cavity, the linearly polarized Cr²⁺:ZnSe laser can be continuously tuned from 2.45 to 2.50 μm, and the output power was almost not changed. In addition, the linewidth was compressed to about 5 nm. At the incident pump power to the crystal of 14 W, the maximum output power of 2.84 W was obtained, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 20.4%.     

Passively Q-switched GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript>/Nd:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser with Cr<Superscript>4+</Superscript>:YAG saturable absorber under direct 879 nm diode pumping to the emitting level

A passively Q-switched 1.06 μm laser with Cr⁴⁺:YAG saturable absorber by direct 879 nm diode pumping grown-together composite GdVO₄/Nd:GdVO₄ crystal to the emitting level was demonstrated in this paper. The characteristics of pulsed laser were investigated by using two kinds of Cr⁴⁺:YAG crystal with the initial transmissivity of 80 and 90%, respectively. When the T ₀ = 90% Cr⁴⁺:YAG was used, an average output power of 1.59 W was achieved at an incident pump power of 10 W. The pulse width and repetition rate were 64.5 ns and 170 kHz, respectively. The thermal lens effect of laser crystal was analyzed.     

490-nm generation by sum-frequency mixing of diode pumped Nd:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript>-Nd:YLF lasers

We report a continuous-wave (CW) blue laser emission by sum-frequency mixing in Nd:GdVO₄ and Nd:YLF crystals. Using type-I critical phase-matching (CPM) LBO crystal, a blue laser at 490 nm is obtained by 1063 and 908 nm intracavity sum-frequency mixing. The maximum laser output power of 118 mW is obtained when an incident pump laser of 18.2 W is used. At the output power level of 118 mW, the output stability is better than 4.2%.     

Effect of resonator length on ZnGeP<Subscript>2</Subscript> doubly resonant optical parametric oscillator pumped by a Tm,Ho:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser

The effect of resonator length on ZnGeP₂ doubly resonant optical parametric oscillator was reported in this letter. With the employment of a Tm,Ho:GdVO₄ laser as the pump source at 2.05 μm, we have found that there are obvious peaks of the output power when the resonator lengths are matched to the length of the pump source. The ZGP OPO can generate a maximum output power of 4.27 W at 3.80 μm signal and 4.45 μm idler when the resonator length matches that of the pump source.     

Raman spectroscopic study of structural disordering in YVO<Subscript>4</Subscript>, GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript>, and CaWO<Subscript>4</Subscript> crystals

The Raman spectra of single-crystal YVO₄, GdVO₄, and ZrSiO₄ with a zircon structure, as well as CaWO₄ and BaWO₄ with a scheelite structure, are studied in detail over a wide temperature range 14–800 K. An inhomogeneous splitting of the A _1g (ν₂) vibrational lines in the Raman spectra of YVO₄ and GdVO₄ and the A _g (ν₁) vibrational lines in the spectrum of CaWO₄ is detected. It is shown that the profiles of these lines can be decomposed into two components, whose integrated intensities are redistributed with temperature and also depend on the matrix kind in which they are detected. The phenomenon observed is associated with the thermally activated processes of disorientation of the tetrahedral anions in the zircon and scheelite structures.     

Diode-pumped Nd:LuVO<Subscript>4</Subscript>-Nd:YVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser at 492 nm with intracavity sum-frequency-mixing in LiB<Subscript>3</Subscript>O<Subscript>6</Subscript>

We present for the first time a Nd:YVO₄ laser emitting at 1064 nm intracavity pumped by a 916 nm diode-pumped Nd:LuVO₄ laser. A 809 nm laser diode is used to pump the Nd:LuVO₄ crystal emitting at 916 nm, a Nd:YVO₄ laser crystal was pumped at 916 nm and lased at 1064 nm. Intracavity sum-frequency mixing at 916 and 1064 nm was then realized in a LiB₃O₆ (LBO) crystal to reach the blue range. We obtained a continuous-wave output power of 216 mW at 492 nm under 19.6 W of incident pump power at 809 nm.     

Diode-pumped short pulse passively Q-switched 912 nm Nd:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript>/Cr:YAG laser at high repetition rate operation

A diode-end-pumped passively Q-switched 912 nm Nd:GdVO₄/Cr:YAG laser is demonstrated for the first time. In a concave-piano cavity, pulsed 912 nm laser performance is investigated using two kinds of Cr:YAG crystal with different unsaturated transmission (T _U) of 95% and 90% at 912 nm as the saturable absorbers. When the T _U = 90% Cr:YAG is used, as much as 2.6 W average output power for short pulsed 912 nm laser is achieved at an absorbed pump power of 34.0 W, corresponding to an optical efficiency of 7.6% and a slope efficiency of 20.3%. Moreover, 10.5 ns duration pulses and up to 2.3 kW peak power is obtained at the repetition rate around 81.6 kHz.