Diode-end-Pumped Nd:YAG Ceramic and Crystal Operation at 1,123 nm

We present a high-power diode-end-pumped continuous-wave Nd:YAG laser operating at 1,123 nm. Laser operation was carried out and compared using high optical quality Nd:YAG ceramics fabricated in-house and commercial Nd:YAG single crystals. At the absorbed diode pump powers of 23.2 and 28.0 W, output powers of 10.7 and 12.5 W at 1,123 nm were achieved for the employed ceramics and crystals as the laser material, which correspond to conversion efficiencies of 46.1% and 44.6%. For high-power lasers, the Nd:YAG ceramic has the advantage of a higher destructive threshold than that of commercial crystals.     

Continuous-wave, 15.2 W diode-end-pumped Nd:YAG laser operating at 946 nm

A high-power continuous-wave (cw) Nd:YAG laser operating at 946 nm by utilizing a quasi-three-level transition is reported. The laser consists of a composite Nd:YAG rod end pumped by a fiber-coupled diode laser and a simple plane-concave cavity. At an incident pump power of 40.2 W, a maximum cw output of 15.2 W at 946 nm is obtained, achieving a slope efficiency of 45%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest output at 946 nm ever generated by diode-pumped Nd:YAG lasers. In addition, at an incident pump power of 15.2 W, a 1.25 W blue output at 473 nm is achieved with a simple compact three-element cavity and a type-I lithium triborate (LiB(3)O(5)) crystal as a frequency doubler.     

多波长半导体激光阵列端泵Nd:YAG脉冲激光器

研制了无温控多波长激光二极管阵列端面泵浦Nd：YAG电光调Q激光器。采用4 000 W多波长准连续激光二极管阵列作为泵浦源,快轴准直镜与透镜导管作为泵浦耦合系统,端面泵浦φ6 mm×60 mm的Nd：YAG晶体,并采用RTP晶体进行电光调Q实验。在重复频率5 Hz、室温（25℃）时,激光器获得了最大输出能量74.4 mJ、脉宽15 ns的1 064 nm脉冲激光输出,光光转换效率达到11%。在25~55℃的工作温度下,对多波长LDA的光谱特征与激光器的输出特性作了测试,激光器输出能量随着工作温度的上升而先迅速下降再逐步保持稳定,当重复频率分别为5 Hz和10 Hz时,激光器对应的最低输出能量分别为48 mJ与37 mJ。     

High power continuous-wave diode-laser-pumped Nd:YAG laser

We report on a diode-laser-pumped cw Nd: YAG laser operating at a power level of 150 W. By using a transverse pump geometry, the radiation of 54 diode lasers with an output power of 10 W each is coupled into a Nd:YAG rod. In multimode operation, an optical slope efficiency of 32% and an optical to optical efficiency of 29% are obtained. In TEM₀₀ operation, an output power of more than 30 W is realized with an optical to optical efficiency of 10%.     

Lasers for materials processing: specifications and trends

An overview is given of the types of lasers dominating the field of laser materials processing. The most prominent lasers in this field are the CO₂ and the Nd: YAG laser. The domain of CO₂ lasers is applications which demand high laser powers (up to 30 kW are available at present), whereas the domain of Nd:YAG lasers is micro-machining applications. In the kilowatt range of laser output power, the two types of lasers are in competition. New diffusion-cooled CO₂ laser systems are capable of output laser powers of several kilowatts, with good beam qualities, while still being quite compact. The output power and beam quality of Nd:YAG lasers has been improved in recent years, so that Nd:YAG lasers are now an alternative to CO₂ lasers even in the kilowatt range. This is especially true for applications that demand optical fibre transmission of the laser beam, which is possible with Nd:YAG laser light but not with the longerwavelength light emitted by CO₂ lasers. The main problem in solid-state lasers such as Nd:YAG is the thermal lensing effect and damage due to thermal stresses. In order to reduce thermal loading, cooling has to be enhanced. Several alternative geometries have been proposed to reduce thermal loading and, by this, thermal lensing effects. There are now slab and tube geometries which allow much higher output powers than the conventionally used laser rods. A very new scheme proposes a thin slab whose cooled side is also used as one of the laser mirrors, so that thermal gradients occur mainly in the direction of the beam propagation and not perpendicular to it, as is the case in the other geometries. As well as CO₂ and Nd:YAG lasers, semiconductor laser diodes are very promising for direct use of the emitted light or as pump sources for Nd:YAG and other solid-state lasers. When packaging together thousands of single laser diodes, output powers of several kilowatts can be realized. Major problems are collimation of the highly divergent laser beams and cooling of the laser diode bars.     

Highly efficient Nd:YAG/LBO laser at 473 nm under direct 885-nm diode laser pumping

<正>In diode pumped Nd:YAG lasers,the quantum defect is the most important parameter determining the thermal load of the laser crystal,which can be dramatically reduced by pumping directly into the upper laser level.A compact folded three-mirror cavity with a length of 105 mm is optimized to obtain a highly efficient 473-nm laser.When the absorbed pump power(with 15.8-W incident pump power) at 885 nm into Nd:YAG is 10 W,a continuous-wave 473-nm blue laser as high as 2.34 W is achieved by LBO intra-cavity frequency doubled.The optical-to-optical conversion efficiency is 14.8%.To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest efficiency at 473 nm by an intra-cavity doubled frequency Nd:YAG laser.     

High-power diode-pumped continuous-wave Nd(3+) lasers at wavelengths near 1.44 microm

We demonstrate longitudinally diode-pumped operation of Nd:YAG and Nd:YAP lasers at the long-wavelength end of the (4)F(3/2) ? (4)I(13/2) transition in the eye-safe spectral region at 1444 and 1430 nm, respectively. Special crystal coatings were required for achievement of lasing at these wavelengths. Output powers of up to 4.9 and 2.2 W, with slope efficiencies of up to 22% and 8%, respectively, were achieved. Polarized operation of the Nd:YAG laser yielded output powers of 76% as compared with unpolarized operation. Because of thermal stress, both YAG and YAP crystals were fractured at roughly 25 W of absorbed longitudinal pump power.     

A diode side-pumped YAG/Nd:YAG/YAG composite crystal laser

A diode-bar side-pumped YAG/Nd:YAG/YAG composite crystal laser is presented. A maximum output power of 18.4 W at 1.064 μm with a slop efficiency of 57% and an optical-optical conversion efficiency of 46% was obtained for a pump power of 40 W. Compared with a side-pumped conventional crystal laser in the same experimental conditions, the side-pumped composite crystal laser improved the optical-to-optical conversion efficiency by 12%. Experimental results indicate that a composite crystal can depress the thermal effects effectively and improve the optical-to-optical conversion efficiency easily in the diode side-pumped lasers. The composite crystal has great potential in high-power diode side-pumped lasers.     

Compact corner-pumped Nd:YAG/YAG composite slab laser

Corner-pumping is a new pumping scheme in diode-pumped all-solid-state lasers, having such advantages as high pump efficiency, favorable pump uniformity and low cost. Compact corner-pumped Nd:YAG/YAG composite slab lasers at 1064 nm with low or medium output powers and high efficiency are demonstrated in this paper. Combined with intracavity frequency doubling by a LBO crystal, a corner-pumped Nd:YAG/YAG composite slab 532 nm green laser with a stable output is realized successfully. The experimental results show that corner-pumping can reduce laser costs greatly, release the thermal effects of slab crystals and improve the output beam quality, and that the new pumping scheme is feasible in the design of diode-pumped all-solid-state lasers with low or medium output powers.     

Efficient sub-nanosecond intracavity optical parametric oscillator pumped with a passively Q-switched Nd:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser

An efficient diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:GdVO₄/Cr⁴⁺:YAG laser was employed to generate a high-repetition-rate, high-peak-power eye-safe laser beam with an intracavity optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on a KTP crystal. The conversion efficiency for the average power is 8.3% from pump diode input to OPO signal output and the slope efficiency is up to 10%. At an incident pump power of 14.5 W, the compact intracavity OPO cavity, operating at 46 kHz, produces average powers at 1571 nm up to 1.2 W with a pulse width as short as 700 ps. PACS 42.60.Gd; 42.65.Yj; 42.55.X     

A tunable corner-pumped Nd:YAG/YAG composite slab CW laser

A corner-pumped Nd:YAG/YAG composite slab continuous-wave laser operating at 1064 nm,1074 nm,1112 nm,1116 nm,and 1123 nm simultaneously and a laser that is tunable at these wavelengths are reported for the first time.The maximum output power of the five-wavelength laser is 5.66 W with an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 11.3%.After a birefringent filter is inserted in the cavity,the five wavelengths can be separated successfully by rotating the filter.The maximum output powers of the 1064 nm,1074 nm,1112 nm,1116 nm,and 1123 nm lasers are 1.51 W,1.3 W,1.27 W,0.86 W,and 0.72 W,respectively.     

Diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:GdVO4 lasers operating at 1.06 μm wavelength

With a 10-W diode laser to pump Nd:GdVO₄ crystal in a folded cavity, we demonstrated Cr⁴⁺:YAG passively Q-switched Nd:GdVO₄ lasers at 1.06 μm. The maximum average output power of 2.1 W and the highest peak power of 625 W were, respectively, obtained when the initial transmissions of the Cr⁴⁺:YAG crystals were 90% and 80%. Received: 8 September 1999 / Revised version: 30 December 1999 / Published online: 8 March 2000     

A linearly polarized continuous-wave 1357-nm Nd:YAG laser

We demonstrated a linearly polarized continuous-wave Nd:YAG laser operating at a 1357-nm single-wavelength, by a 808-nm diode as an end-pump source. We chose a Brewster-angle-cut Nd:YAG laser host crystal, due to its two salient features as follow: linearly polarized laser output and single-wavelength oscillation can be easily obtained. In this paper, a continuous-wave all-solid-state single-wavelength laser operating at 1357 nm is demonstrated with a diode-end-pumped Brewster-cut Nd:YAG laser. The laser had a 1.03-W maximum output power under an incident pump power of 15.0 W, a 12.7% slope efficiency, a 6.9% optical-to-optical conversion efficiency, a 0.14-nm spectral linewidth and a 3% power-output stability within 30 min. PACS 42.55.Rz; 42.55.Xi; 42.70.Hj     

Highly efficient diode side-pumped Nd:YAG ceramic laser with 210 W output power

We developed a highly efficient diode side-pumped Nd:YAG ceramic laser with a diffusive reflector as an optical pump cavity. A maximum output power of 211.6 W was obtained with an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 48.7%. This corresponds to the highest conversion efficiency in the side-pumped ceramic rod. Thermal effects of the Nd:YAG ceramic rod were analyzed in detail through the measurements of laser output powers and beam profiles near the critically unstable region. A M² beam quality factor of 18.7 was obtained at the maximum laser output power.     

Characterization of laser processing of single‐crystal natural diamonds using micro‐Raman spectroscopic investigations

The application of lasers for processing diamond has revolutionized the diamond industry and its applications in microelectronics, microelectromechanical system (MEMS) and microoptoelectromechanical system (MOEMS) technologies. The process quality can be evaluated using spectroscopic techniques. In the present investigation, four different types of Q‐switched solid‐state lasers (with different beam parameters), namely, a lamp‐pumped Nd:YAG laser operating at 1064 nm, a lamp‐pumped Nd:YAG laser operating at second harmonically generated 532 nm, a diode‐pumped Nd:YVO₄ laser operating at 1064 nm and a diode‐pumped Nd:YAG laser operating at 1064 nm, have been employed for the processing of a single‐crystal, gem‐quality, natural diamond. The main objective behind the selection of these lasers with different beam parameters was to study the effect of wavelength, pulse width, pulse energy, peak power and beam quality factor (M² factor) on various aspects of processing (such as microcracking, material loss and cut surface quality) and their relative merits and demerits. The overall weight loss of the diamond and formation of microcracks during processing have been studied for the above four cases. The characteristics of the graphite formed during processing, elemental analysis, surface morphology of the cut surface and process dynamics have been studied using micro‐Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). We observed that laser cutting of single‐crystal diamonds used for industrial applications can be accomplished without microcracking or surface distortion using Q‐switched Nd:YAG lasers. This allows direct processing without extensive postgrinding and polishing stages. Very efficient diamond processing is possible using diode‐pumped lasers, which results in the lowest possible breakage rate, good accuracy, good surface finish and low weight loss. From the micro‐Raman and SEM studies, it is concluded that the surface quality obtained is superior when diode‐pumped Nd:YVO₄ laser is used, owing to its extremely high peak power. The maximum graphite content is observed while processing with lamp‐pumped Nd:YAG laser at 532 nm. An overall comparison of all the laser sources leads to the conclusion that diode‐pumped Nd:YAG laser is a superior option for the efficient processing of natural diamond crystals. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Preparation and characterization of transparent Nd:YAG ceramics

Transparent Nd:YAG ceramics were produced by solid.state reaction of high.purity (4N) nanometric oxides powders, i.e., Al₂O₃, Y₂O₃ and Nd₂O₃. After sintering, mean grain sizes of 2% Nd:YAG samples were about 20 μm and their transparency were a bit worse than that of 0.9% Nd:YAG single crystal. Two types of active elements: rods and slabs were fabricated and characterized in several diode pumping schemes. In end pumping configuration as a pump source 20.W fiber coupled laser diode operating in low duty cycle regime (1 ms pump duration/20 Hz) was deployed. In the best case, 3.7 W of output power for 18 W of absorbed pump power, M² < 1.4 were demonstrated for uncoated ceramics Nd:YAG rod of ϕ 4×3mm size in preliminary experiments. For the ceramics of two times lower Nd dopant level above 30% slope efficiency was achieved. In case of Nd:YAG ceramic slab side pumped by 600.W laser diode stack above 12 W was demonstrated with slope efficiency of 3.5%.     

Low‐wavelength emission of Nd‐doped lasers

This paper gives an overview of the results obtained with diode‐pumped Neodymium‐doped crystals operating below 900 nm. Operation at such low wavelengths requires considering the strong thermal population of the lower level of the laser transition. Based on a theoretical study and simulations, the paper presents the challenges related to the design of these three‐level lasers. Experimental results are given with Nd:YAG and Nd:vanadate crystals. It is explained how to deal with the line competition with emission at 946 nm or 912 nm. Finally, intracavity second‐harmonic generation is presented. The output powers reach a few hundred mW at wavelengths below 450 nm. Hence, the paper demonstrates the potential of Nd‐doped diode‐pumped solid‐state lasers for applications in the blue range, in replacement of gas lasers such as helium‐cadmium lasers.     

551 nm Generation by sum-frequency mixing of intracavity pumped Nd:YAG laser

We present for the first time a Nd:YAG laser emitting at 1319 nm intracavity pumped by a 946 nm diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser. A 809 nm laser diode is used to pump the first Nd:YAG crystal emitting at 946 nm, and the second Nd:YAG laser emitting at 1319 nm intracavity pumped at 946 nm. Intracavity sumfrequency mixing at 946 and 1319 nm was then realized in a LBO crystal to reach the yellow range. We obtained a continuous-wave output power of 158 mW at 551 nm with a pump laser diode emitting 18.7 W at 809 nm.     

二极管激光侧面泵浦的全固态主动锁模Nd:YAG激光器

利用优化的腔设计,使谐振腔中增益介质中有大的模体积,并在高功率泵浦下具有高的热稳定性;采用热补偿环形径向侧面泵浦模块技术进行了连续NdYAG主动声光锁模的实验研究, 利用自行设计的锁相环反馈电路,获得输出功率10 W的稳定的锁模脉冲输出.     

1064 nm Nd:YAG laser intracavity pumped at 946 nm

We present for the first time a Nd:YAG laser emitting at 1064 nm intracavity pumped by a 946 nm diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser. A 885 nm laser diode is used to pump the first Nd:YAG crystal emitting at 946 nm, and the second Nd:YAG laser emitting at 1064 nm intracavity pumped at 946 nm. We achieved an output power of 7.97 W at 1064 nm for an absorbed pump power at 946 nm of 9.55 W, corresponding to an optical efficiency of 83.4%. The beam quality M² quality factor is about 1.1 at the maximum output power.