Diode-pumped Q-switched Tm:LuAG ring laser operation at room temperature

2-μm lasers with high pulse energy and long pulse width of hundreds of nanoseconds are needed urgently in the accurate wind velocity lidar systems. This paper presented the acoustic-optical Q-switched Tm:LuAG laser performance in a pulsed-laser-diode end-pumping figure-eight ring resonator structure. Pulse energy and pulse width are investigated with the increasing of the incident pump energy at different repetition rate operation. Maximum energy of 3.3 mJ with the pulse width of 199 ns and 1.8 mJ with pulse width of 293 ns are obtained at the repetition rate of 20 and 50 Hz, respectively. Under Q-switched operation, the peak output wavelength is 2.022 μm at all time, and the beam quality factors are lower than 2 times diffraction-limited measured by a knife-edge traveling method.     

Experimental investigation of pulse diodes side-pumped 2 μm Tm:YAG lasers

The free running and Q-switched operation of 2 μm Tm:YAG lasers side-pumped by pulse laser diodes were reported. In the free running mode the maximum output energies were 102.5 mJ at 1 Hz and 94.6 mJ at 10 Hz, respectively. With an acousto-optic modulator in the laser resonator, 21 mJ 2 μm Q-switched pulse was obtained, with a pulse width of about 330 ns. The dependences of the output energy and the efficiency on the laser resonator parameters were investigated.     

Room-temperature cw and pulsed operation of a diode-end-pumped Tm:YAP laser

We report the continuous-wave and acousto-optical Q-switched operation of a diode-end-pumped Tm:YAP laser. Continuous-wave output power of 3.5 W at 1.99 μm was obtained under the absorbed pump power of 14 W. Under Q-switched laser operation, the average output power increased from 1.57 W to 2.0 W, with an absorbed pump power of 12.6 W, as the repetition rate increased from 1 kHz to 10 kHz. The maximum Q-switched pulse energy was 1.57 mJ with a repetition rate of 1 kHz. The minimum pulse width was measured to be about 80 ns, corresponding to a peak power of 19.6 kW. PACS 42.55.Rz; 42.55.Xi; 42.60.Gd     

Efficient continuous wave and Q-switched operation of a dual-end-pumped <Emphasis Type="Italic">c</Emphasis>-cut Tm:YAP laser

An efficient continuous wave (CW) and Q-switched c-cut Tm:YAP laser is reported in this letter. With the dual-end-pumped convex-concave resonator, CW output power up to 13.6 W at 1.99 μm was obtained under a total incident pump power of 50 W. The corresponding slope efficiency was 34.3% and conversion efficiency was 27.2%. The active Q-switched operation of the laser had an average output power of 12.5 W at 10 kHz pulse repetition frequency, with a minimum pulse width of 126 ns. With 6 kHz pulse repetition frequency, the maximum pulse energy of 1.6 mJ was obtained. In addition, using the Tm:YAP laser as a pumping source for gain-switched Cr:ZnSe laser, as much as 4 W output power in the wavelength range of 2.5–2.6 μm was obtained.     

Single-frequency operation of a laser diode side-pumped Q-switched Tm:YAG laser using seeding injection technique

A laser diode (LD) side-pumped 2 μm single-frequency Q-switched Tm:YAG laser was demonstrated. The laser was injection seeded by a CW single frequency Tm:YAG laser with a twisted-mode cavity. The maximum single-frequency pulse energy was 16.3 mJ, with a pulse width of 570 ns and a pulse repetition rate of 10 Hz. The linewidth of the 2 μm single-frequency Q-switched laser was 0.68 MHz, measured by using the optical heterodyne technique. The M ² of the laser beam was measured to be 1.09 and 1.03 for x direction and y direction, respectively.     

Diode-pumped long-pulse-width Tm:YAG laser at room temperature

We report the pulsed-diode-pumped and acoustics-optically Q-switched operation of a long-pulse-width Tm:YAG laser at room temperature. Output energy for single pulse of 48 mJ is obtained under the incident pump energy of 217.3 mJ, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 30.2% and an optical conversion efficiency of 22.1%. For the Q-switched regime, maximum pulse energy of 3.25 mJ and the pulse width of 232.8 ns at the repetition rate of 30 Hz are achieved. The wavelength of the Q-switched laser is 2.013 μm. A beam quality factor of M ² < 1.4 is measured using the traveling 90/10 knife-edge method.     

Q-switched operation of <Emphasis Type="Italic">a</Emphasis>-cut Ho:YAlO<Subscript>3</Subscript> laser pumped by a diode-pumped 1.91 μm thulium laser

Q-switched operation of a room temperature Ho:YAP laser was resonantly end-pumped by a diode-pumped Tm:YLF laser at 1.91 μm. The CW Ho:YAP laser generated 9.9 W of linearly output at 2119.03 nm with beam quality factor of M ² ∼1.46 with respect to absorbed pump power of 19.16 W, corresponding to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 51.7% and slope efficiency of 60.6%. Under Q-switched operation, the maximum output power of 9.8 W in relation to 10 kHz pulse repetition frequency (PRF) was obtained, however, the maximum peak power of 60 kW at the PRF of 5 kHz was demonstrated. At 5 kHz pulse energies of 1.92 mJ with pulse width of 32 ns was achieved.     

1645 nm Q-Switched resonantly pumped Er:YAG laser

A resonantly pumped Q-switched Er:YAG laser at 1645 nm was reported. 1 mJ of output pulse energy was achieved for Q-switched operation at 100 Hz repetition rate under total incident pump power of 4 W. An output peak power of 14 kW and pulse width of 60.6 ns were obtained.     

Stable pulse-compressed acousto-optic Q-switched fiber laser

A novel acousto-optic switch operation by a simple laser-diode pumped acousto-optic, Q-switched, ytterbium-doped, double-clad fiber laser is reported. Stable compressed Q-switched sub-40 ns pulses with a beam quality factor (M(2)=2) are achieved at the repetition rate of 1-50 kHz. Q-switched pulses of ~20 microJ pulse energy and 35 ns pulse width are obtained at the repetition rate of 50 kHz. Finally, a reasonable explanation of the novel Q-switched operation is presented.     

Actively Q-switched intracavity frequency-doubled Nd:LuVO<Subscript>4</Subscript>/LBO green laser with an acousto-optic modulator

This work presents experimental results concerning an actively Q-switched intracavity frequency-doubled Nd:LuVO₄/LBO green laser with an acousto-optic modulator operated at the wavelength of 0.53 μm. The green average output power of 2.8 W was obtained at a pump power of 16.3 W and a pulse repetition rate of 20 kHz, resulting in an optical conversion efficiency of 17%. When the pulse repetition rate is operated at 5 kHz, the shortest pulse width and the highest peak power at 0.53 μm were measured to be 26.5 ns and 8.43 kW, respectively.     

High-power high-repetition-rate acousto-optically Q-switched 1342 nm laser

A high-power high-repetition-rate acousto-optically Q-switched 1342 nm laser with double Nd:YVO₄ crystals pumped by fiber-coupled laser diodes is presented. The highest output power of 13.7 W was achieved with a total of 42 W pumping power in cw operation, the slope efficiency was measured as 36%, and the optical efficiency was better than 32%. In Q-switchedoperation, the highest pulse repetition rate of 100 kHz was obtained. At 50 kHz repetition rate, the laser exported 11.2 W average output power, with 60 ns average pulse width, ∼5% width stability (RMS) and ∼8% peak-power stability (RMS). At 10 kHz repetition rate, the highest average output power was measured as 6.3 W, single pulse energy was calculated as 0.63 mJ, with pulse width of 19 ns and peak-power higher than 30 kW. Combining the experimental results, we analyze and discuss some problems concerning Nd:YVO₄ crystal working at 1,342 nm wavelength. PACS 42.55.-f; 42.55.Xi; 42.60.Gd     

High power, high energy nanosecond pulsed fiber amplifier with a 20-μm-core fiber

We report on a master-oscillator fiber power amplifier (MOPA) system with a core diameter of only 20 μm and 6-m-long Yb³⁺-doped large mode area (LMA) double-clad fiber. Actively Q-switched Nd:YVO₄ laser is used as a seed source of light pluses. The system works at the repetition rate from 40 to 100 kHz. Up to 77 W of amplified radiation with the pulse duration of 17.8 ns at the wavelength of 1064 nm and repetition rate of 40 kHz are generated, corresponding to pulse energy of 1.9 mJ and the slope efficiency of 73.5%. In reported literatures, the 77 W is the highest average power with a 20-μm-core LMA fiber to our knowledge. The stimulate Brillouin scattering (SBS) is observed and investigated.     

Pulse characteristics of passively Q-switched 1.34 μm Nd:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript>/Co<Superscript>2+</Superscript>:MgAl<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser

Passively Q-switched output of a diode-pumped 1.34 μm Nd:GdVO₄ laser was demonstrated by using Co²⁺:MgAl₂O₄(Co²⁺:MALO) crystal as the saturable absorber for the first time. When the transmission of output mirror is 15%, the Q-switched pulse width is 110 ns and a corresponding average output power is 460 mW under the pump power of 9.69 W. The optical-optical conversion efficiency is 36%. At about 330 kHz repetition rate, the single Q-switched pulse energy and the peak power are about 1.39 μJ and 12.6 W, respectively.     

激光二极管列阵侧面泵浦Nd：YLF激光器

报道准连续６０Ｗ激光二极管列阵侧面泵浦Ｎｄ：ＹＬＦ固体激光器的研究结果，当器件的动转重复频率为３０Ｈｚ时，得到４．４ｍＪ的１．０４７μｍ激光输出，光－光转换效率达到１８．３％，斜率效率达２４．４％。声光和电光调Ｑ，得到能量为２．２ｍＪ，脉宽分别为５０ｎｓ和３０ｎｓ的脉冲输出。     

Efficient Ho:YAP laser dual-end-pumped by Tm fiber laser

We report the continuous wave and acousto-optically Q-switched operation of an in-band dual-end-pumped Ho:YAP laser at room temperature. A continuous wave output power of 11.0W at 2118 nm was obtained at an absorbed pump power of 19.8 W, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 62.1%. For the Q-switched mode, a maximum pulse energy of about 1.07 mJ and a minimum pulse width of 29 ns at a repetition rate of 10 kHz were achieved, resulting in a peak power of 36.9 kW.     

Performance of actively Q-switched Nd:LiLuF<Subscript>4</Subscript> crystal end-pumped by a 792 nm laser diode

An efficient laser diode end-pumped continuous-wave (CW) and AO Q-switched laser of Nd:LiLuF₄ crystal with dual central wavelengths of 1053.1 and 1054.7 nm is reported for the first time. The maximum CW output power of 6.22 W was obtained at absorbed pump power of ∼14.6 W with the output transmission of 2%. The optical conversion efficiency is ∼43%, corresponding to a slope efficiency of about 48% with respect to the absorbed pump. For the Q-switched operation, the shortest pulse width of 17 ns was obtained at the pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of 0.5 kHz, resulting in a pulse energy of 2.24 mJ and peak power of 131.8 kW.     

Diode-pumped passively Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:GGG laser at 1.3 μm with V<Superscript>3+</Superscript>:YAG saturable absorber

Using V³⁺:YAG crystal as the saturable absorber, a diode-pumped passively Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:GGG laser operating at 1.3 μm is realized for the first time. The mode-locking modulation depth of nearly 100% has been achieved. The maximum output power and the single Q-switched pulse energy are 410 mW and 8.3 μJ. The mode-locked pulse inside the Q-switched pulse has a repetition rate of 349 MHz, and its average pulse width is estimated to be about 750 ps.     

A cobalt-doped transparent glass ceramic saturable absorber Q-switch for a LD pumped Yb<Superscript>3+</Superscript>/Er<Superscript>3+</Superscript> glass microchip laser

We fabricate a transparent glass ceramic contains magnesium-aluminum spinel nanocrystallites doped with Co²⁺ ions. The ground-state and excited-state absorption cross section of this glass ceramic at 1.54 μm are estimated to be (2.8 ± 0.3) × 10⁻¹⁹ cm² and (4.8 ± 0.5) × 10⁻²⁰ cm², respectively. For the first time, the passively Q-swithched operation of LD pumped 1.54 μm microchip Yb³⁺/Er³⁺ glass laser is realized with transparent glass ceramic as saturable absorber. The Q-switched pulses of 3.846 kHz in repetition rate, 6.2 ns in duration and 6.3 μJ in energy are obtained. At last, the dependences of pulse width and repetition rate on pump power are also investigated.     

Millijoule intracavity OPO driven by a passively Q-switched Nd:YVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser with AlGaInAs quantum-well saturable absorber

We originally demonstrate the use of an AlGaInAs periodic quantum-well absorber to achieve a quasi-continuous-wave (QCW) diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:YVO₄ laser with an intracavity optical parametric oscillator (OPO). With a diode-pumping energy of 35 mJ, the output pulse energy and the pulse width at 1573 nm are found to be 1.58 mJ and 26 ns, respectively. The pulse repetition rate can be up to 100 Hz with the overall OPO beam quality M² factor to be better than 1.5.     

InGaAsP quantum-wells saturable absorber for diode-pumped passively Q-switched 1.3-μm lasers

We demonstrate the first use of InGaAsP quantum wells as a saturable absorber in the Q-switching of a diode-pumped Nd-doped 1.3 μm laser. The barrier layers of the InGaAsP quantum-well device are designed to be a strong absorber for the suppression of the transition channel at 1.06 μm. With an incident pump power of 1.8 W, an average output power of 160 mW with a Q-switched pulse width of 19 ns at a pulse repetition rate of 38 kHz was obtained. PACS 42.60.Gd; 42.55.Xi; 42.65.Re