Power scaling of a continuous-wave and passively Q-switched Yb:KLu(WO<Subscript>4</Subscript>)<Subscript>2</Subscript> laser end-pumped by a high-power diode

The power scaling capacity of a diode end-pumped Yb:KLu(WO₄)₂ laser, operating in the continuous-wave (cw) and passively Q-switched regimes, has been investigated. A cw output power of 11.5 W was achieved with an optical-to-optical efficiency of 41% with respect to the incident pump power, while the slope efficiency amounts to 60%. The passively Q-switchedoperation yielded an average output power of 4.3 W at the fundamental wavelength of 1031.7 nm, and 1.15 W of Raman radiation at 1139.3 nm. The total slope efficiency for Q-switched operation was 40%. The highest pulse energy, duration, and peak power were 170 μJ, 2.2 ns, and 77.3 kW for the fundamental radiation, and 51 μJ, 2.3 ns, and 22.2 kW for the Raman radiation. PACS 42.55.Rz; 42.55.Xi; 42.55.Ye     

High slope efficiency and low threshold in a laser-diode-pumped passively Q-switched ion-implanted Nd:YVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> planar waveguide laser with GaAs saturable absorber

A passively Q-switched waveguide laser, to our knowledge, has been firstly demonstrated in Nd: YVO₄ crystal formed by 3 MeV Si⁺ ion implantation at a dose of 1 × 10¹⁵ ions/cm² at room temperature, in which GaAs was used as saturable absorber. The dependences of the average output power, pulse width, pulse repetition rate on absorbed pump power have been measured at different output plane mirror transmissions. At an absorbed pump power of 78.8 mW and output transmission of 20%, the shortest pulse width of 3.88 ns was obtained, corresponding to the peak power and single pulse energy of 212 W and 0.82 μJ, respectively. The threshold pump power was as low as 40 mW, and the slope efficiency was about 64.5% when the absorbed pump power was lower than 70 mW.     

Passively Q-switched laser performance of a diode-pump mixed Nd:Lu<Subscript>0.15</Subscript>Y<Subscript>0.85</Subscript>VO<Subscript>4</Subscript> crystal

A diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:Lu_0.15Y_0.85VO₄ laser with a GaAs output coupler is demonstrated. By using a mixed crystal Nd:Lu_0.15Y_0.85VO₄ as laser medium, the passively Q-switched laser can generate shorter pulse width with higher peak power in comparison with the passively Q-switched Nd:LuVO₄ or Nd:YVO₄ lasers under the same laser cavity. At the incident pump power 11.9 W, the minimum pulse width of 3.23 ns and the maximum peak power 1.67 kW can be obtained. The average output power and the pulse repetition rate of the laser are also measured. The experimental results show that the mixed crystal is a promising laser medium for shorter Q-switched pulse with higher peak power.     

Diode-pumped passively Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:Lu<Subscript>0.15</Subscript>Y<Subscript>0.85</Subscript>VO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser with a GaAs saturable absorber

By using a-cut Nd:Lu_0.15Y_0.85VO₄ mixed crystal as laser gain medium, a diode-pumped passively Q-switched and mode-locked (QML) laser with a GaAs saturable absorber in a Z-type folded cavity is demonstrated for the first time. The Q-switched mode-locked laser pulses with about 90% modulation depth are obtained as long as the pump power reached the oscillation threshold. The repetition rate of the passively Q-switched pulse envelope ranges from 50 to 186 kHz as the pump power increases from 0.915 to 6.520 W. Under an incident pump power of 6.52 W, the QML pulses with the largest average output power of 694 mW, the shortest pulse width of 200 ns and the highest pulse energy of 3.73 μJ are obtained. The mode-locked pulse width inside the Q-switched envelope is estimated to be about 275 ps. The experimental results show that Nd:Lu_0.15Y_0.85VO₄ is a promising mixed crystal for QML laser.     

Passive picosecond and femtosecond mode-locking laser action of Yb<Superscript>3+</Superscript>:LuYSiO<Subscript>5</Subscript>

Efficient passive mode locking of a diode-pumped Yb³⁺:LuYSiO₅ (Yb:LYSO) laser is first demonstrated in experiment using a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM), to the best of our knowledge. A stable pulse train with a repetition rate of 101 MHz is generated. The average output power of 2.13 W and the pulse duration of 3.9 ps. With a pair of SF10 uncoated prisms for dispersion compensation, we obtained pulses as short as 780 fs with center wavelength around 1042 nm, the average output power of 1.03 W and the peak power of 13.1 kW.     

High-power passively Q-switched Nd:YVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> UV laser at 355 nm

We report on an efficient high-power passively Q-switched UV laser at 355 nm. We take into account the second threshold criterion and the thermal-lensing effect to design and realize a compact reliable passively Q-switched Nd:YVO₄ laser with Cr⁴⁺:YAG as a saturable absorber. At an incident pump power of 16.3 W, the average output power at 1064 nm reaches 6.2 W with a pulse width of 7 ns and a pulse repetition rate of 56 kHz. Employing the developed passively Q-switched laser to perform the extra-cavity harmonic generations, the maximum average output powers at 532 nm and 355 nm are up to 2.2 W and 1.62 W, respectively.     

Room temperature efficient continuous wave and Q-switched operation of a Ho:YAP laser

We report the continuous wave and acousto-optically Q-switched operation of a Tm:YLF-pumped Ho:YAP laser at room temperature. Continuous wave output power of 6.8 W at 2118 nm was obtained under the incident pump power of 13.4 W, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 65.6% and a conversion efficiency of 50.7%. For the Q-switched mode, a maximum pulse energy of 1.28 mJ and a minimum pulse width of 31 ns at the repetition rate of 5 kHz were achieved, resulting in a peak power of 41.3 kW. In addition, the Ho:YAP laser was employed as a pumping source of ZGP optical parametric oscillator, the total average output power of which was 3.2 W at 4.08 and 4.41 μm with a slope efficiency of 69.5%, corresponding to the diode-to-mid-IR conversion efficiency of 9.0%.     

Passively Q-switched <Emphasis Type="Italic">a</Emphasis>-cut Nd:YVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> self-Raman laser

A passively Q-switched a-cut Nd:YVO₄ self-stimulating Raman laser using a Cr:YAG saturable absorber has been demonstrated for the first time. The maximum average output power of the self-Raman laser at 1176 nm is 347 mW at the incident pump power of 10 W with a pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of 66 kHz. The pulse width, pulse energy of the 1176 nm are found to be 10 ns and 5.6 μJ. The conversion efficiency from diode laser input power to Raman output power is 3.47%.     

Diode-pumped passively Q-switched mode-locked Nd:LuVO4 laser with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror

We present a compact passively Q-switched mode-locked Nd:LuVO₄ laser run in a Z-type folded cavity with semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM). The repetition rates of the passively Q-switched pulse envelope ranges from 22.99 to 141.18 kHz as the pump power increased from 2.372 to 8.960 W. The repetition rates of mode-locked laser pulses in the Q-switched pulse envelope has 111 MHz determined by the cavity length and the mode-locked pulse duration is evaluated to be 257 ps. An average output power of 823.5 mW is achieved at the pump power of 8.96 W, corresponding to an optical conversion efficiency of 9.2%.     

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.     

Passively Q-Switched and mode-locked Nd:YVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser with sandwich structured wallpaper graphene oxide absorber

We report on a passively Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:YVO₄ laser using a novel low-cost wall-paper graphene oxide absorber. Sandwich structured wallpaper graphene oxide absorber was constructed by a high transmission mirror, a piece of wallpaper graphene oxide absorber and a reflective mirror. The average output power of 310 mW of passively Q-switched and mode-locked laser was successfully achieved. The repetition rate and pulse width of the Q-switched envelope were 213 kHz and 770 ns, respectively. The repetition rate of passively mode-locked pulse within the Q-switched envelope was 81.3 MHz with the pulse energy of 3.8 nJ.     

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.     

Compact passively Q-switched green laser with periodically poled MgO:LiNbO<Subscript>3</Subscript>

Passively Q-switched green output with Cr⁴⁺:YAG as saturable absorber and PPMgLN as the frequency doubling crystal was realized in a compact diode end-pumped Nd:YVO₄ laser. The green light output power, pulse width, pulse repetition rate, pulse energy and peak power with three Cr⁴⁺:YAG of different initial transmissions were investigated. The maximum average output power was 1.2 W at the pump power of 4.0 W and the maximum conversion efficiency was 30% with the Cr⁴⁺:YAG of 90% initial transmission. The maximum pulse energy and minimum pulse width were 10.9 μJ and 12 ns with the Cr⁴⁺:YAG of 75% initial transmission.     

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     

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.     

The characteristics of diode-pumped acousto-optic Yb:Y2Ca3B4O12 laser for Q-switching and Q-switched mode-locking

Q-switching and Q-switched mode-locked Yb:Y₂Ca₃B₄O₁₂ lasers with an acousto-optic switch are demonstrated. In the Q-switching case, an average output power of 530 mW is obtained at the pulse repetition rate of 10.0 kHz under an absorbed pump power of 6.1 W. The minimum pulse width is 79 ns at the repetition rate of 1.7 kHz. The pulse energy and peak energy are calculated to be 231 μJ and 2.03 kW, respectively. In the Q-switched mode-locking case, the average output power of 64 mW with a mode-locked pulse repetition rate of 118 MHz and Q-switched pulse energy of 48 μJ is generated under the absorbed pump power of 6.1 W.     

Diode-pumped high-repetition-rate acousto-optically Q-switched Nd:YVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser operating at 914 nm

A diode-pumped high-repetition-rate acousto-optically (A-O) Q-switched Nd:YVO₄ laser operating at 914 nm was reported in this paper. Employing a compact linear laser cavity, at an operating repetition rate of 10 kHz, a maximum average output power of 2.2 W 914 nm laser was obtained at an incident pump power of 45.3 W, corresponding to an optical conversion efficiency of 4.9% and a slope efficiency of 8.8%. Minimum pulse width of 24 ns and maximum peak power of 8.0 kW of 914 nm laser was also achieved at an incident pump power of 40.8 W. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest peak power of 914 nm laser at 10 kHz by far. Moreover, the highest operating repetition rate of pulsed 914 nm can even reach 100 kHz.     

Diode-pumped passively mode-locked Nd:CaNb<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>6</Subscript> laser

We have experimentally demonstrated a diode-pumped passively mode-locked Nd:CaNb₂O₆ laser for the first time to our best knowledge. With a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) as a passive mode locker, the laser generated stable mode-locked pulses with pulse duration of 17.3 ps and repetition rate of 88.4 MHz. With a singe-emitter laser diode pumping, the maximum average output power of the mode-locked laser was 0.843 W, with a slope efficiency of 23%. The experimental results show the Nd:CaNb₂O₆ crystal is a promising laser gain medium for picosecond pulse generation.     

Passive Q-switching performance with Co:LMA crystal in a diode-pumped Nd:LuVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser

A diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:LuVO₄ 1.34 μm laser using Co:LMA saturable absorber was successfully demonstrated. The average output power, pulse width, repetition rate of a-cut and c-cut Nd:LuVO₄ lasers were studied with different output couplers. The maximum average output power of 164 mW was obtained at the pump power of 10.3 W and the narrowest pulse width of 168 ns was achieved at repetition rate of 457 kHz under pump power of 8.59 W in a-cut Nd:LuVO₄ laser with T = 8%.     

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.