Compact and efficient diode-pumped actively Q-switched 1319 nm Nd:YAG ceramic laser

An efficient compact diode-pumped acousto-optic actively Q-switched Nd:YAG ceramic laser operating at 1319 nm was demonstrated. At an incident pump power of 23.7 W, an average output power of 4.8 W at a pulse repetition frequency of 30 kHz was obtained. The corresponding optical-to-optical conversion efficiency was 20.3%. A maximum single pulse energy of 316 μJ with a pulse duration of 78.5 ns was obtained at an incident pump power of 19.4 W and a pulse repetition frequency of 10 kHz.     

LD-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:YVO/LBO red laser with V:YAG

An LD-pumped Nd:YVO₄ passively Q-switched by V:YAG and intracavity frequency doubled by LBO red pulse laser at 671 nm was presented. With 1.6 W incident pump power, average output power of 53 mW, pulse duration (FWHM) of 29.5 ns, pulse repetition rate of 37.2 kHz, peak power of 48.3 W and single-pulse energy of 1.43 μJ were obtained. The stability of pulse energy and repetition rate was better than 3% for 4 h.     

Q-switched NYAB laser end-pumped by a high-power diode-laser array

A diode-laser array end-pumped acousto-optically Q-switched NYAB laser operating at both 1.06 and 0.53 μm has been demonstrated. An average output power of 1.3 W at 1.06 μm at a pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of 60 kHz was obtained with an optical conversion efficiency of 18.1% and a slope efficiency of 21.3%. At the incident pump power of 6.1 W, the 1.06 μm shortest laser pulse was reached at PRF of 20 kHz with FWHM width measured to be 32 ns, yielding a largest pulse energy of 30 μJ, and a highest peak power of 938 W. The attainable maximum average green power was found to be 185 mW, with an optical conversion efficiency of 3%.     

Actively Q-switched intracavity second-harmonic generation of 1.06 μm in BiB3O6 crystal

We have investigated the acousto-optically Q-switched intracavity second-harmonic generation of 1.06 μm in a 1.9-mm-long BiB₃O₆ crystal, cut for type-I phase-matching direction of (θ,)=(168.9°,90°), performed in a diode-end-pumped Nd:YVO₄ laser. When the incident pump power was 4.3 W at 30 kHz of pulse repetition frequency, a maximum average green output power of 480 mW, the shortest pulse with FWHM width of 72 ns, the highest single pulse energy of 16 μJ and the maximum peak power of 222 W were obtained, giving the corresponding optical conversion efficiency of 11.2%. The effect of varying temperature in BIBO crystal on the average green output power was also investigated.     

High repetition rate passively Q-switched diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 laser

We demonstrated an efficient and compact, diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:YVO₄ laser operation at 1.064 μm wavelength with high repetition rate, using Cr⁴⁺:YAG as saturable absorber, formed with a simple flat–flat resonator. The maximum CW output power of 4.05 W was obtained at the incident pump power of 8 W. For Q-switched operation, the maximum average output power was measured to be 1.4 W with the corresponding repetition rate of 200 kHz, the pulse width of 60 ns when the initial transmission of Cr⁴⁺:YAG crystal was 85%. The shortest pulse width of 12 ns, the largest pulse energy of 36 μJ and the highest peak power of 3 kW were obtained when the Cr⁴⁺:YAG crystal with an initial transmission of 60% was used.     

Diode end-pumped Q-switched high-power intracavity frequency-doubled Nd:GdVO4/KTP green laser

A diode-laser-array end-pumped acousto-optically Q-switched intracavity frequency-doubled Nd:GdVO₄/KTP green laser, formed with a three-mirror folded resonator, has been demonstrated. With 15 W of pump power incident upon the Nd:GdVO₄ crystal, a maximum average green output power of 3.75 W was obtained at 50 kHz of pulse repetition frequency, giving an optical conversion efficiency of 25%, whereas the effective intracavity frequency-doubling efficiency was determined to be 72%. At the incident pump power of 12.8 W, the shortest laser pulse was achieved at a pulse repetition rate of 10 kHz, the resulting pulse width, single pulse energy, and peak power were measured to be 35 ns, 108 μJ, and 3.1 kW, respectively. Received: 18 May 2000 / Published online: 20 September 2000     

LD-pumped actively Q-switched Nd:GdVO4/KTP red laser

LD-pumped actively Q-switched intracavity frequency-doubled Nd:GdVO₄/KTP red laser has been introduced. A maximum red average output power of 0.78 W at 671 nm was obtained at pulse-repetition frequency (PRF) of 15 kHz and the optical conversion efficiency was 6.5%. At the incident pump power of 12 W, the shortest laser pulse occurred at PRF of 15 kHz. Its full-width at half-maximum and the highest peak power were measured to be 35.8 ns and 3.38 kW. The largest single pulse energy of 56.3 μJ was achieved at PRF of 10 kHz. The influence factors on the Q-switched Nd:GdVO₄/KTP red laser have been discussed.     

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.     

2 μm波段半导体可饱和吸收镜被动调Q光纤激光器

基于半导体可饱和吸收镜和光纤光栅实现了稳定的2 m波段被动调Q光纤脉冲激光器,输出激光的中心波长为1958.2 nm。随着泵浦功率的增加,输出脉冲的重复频率不断增加,而对应脉冲的宽度不断减小。输出脉冲重复频率的变化范围为20～80 kHz,脉冲宽度的变化范围为490 ns～1 s。当泵浦功率为1.3 W时,调Q光纤激光器的最大平均输出功率为91 mW,脉冲重复频率为80 kHz,脉冲宽度为490 ns,对应的最大单脉冲能量约为1.14 J。     

Compact eye-safe laser sources based on OPOs with KTP or PPKTP crystals

We report on compact eye-safe nanosecond laser sources emitting in the 1.5 μm wavelength range based on non-critically phase-matched parametric interaction in optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) with KTP and periodically poled KTP (PPKTP) crystals, pumped by the fundamental frequency of Nd:YAG lasers. As much as 250 μJ signal pulse energy at 1.5 μm wavelength, 6.5 ns FWHM pulse-width, has been obtained in a PPKTP-OPO, extracavity pumped by a Nd:YAG microlaser oscillator–amplifier at 650 μJ pump pulse energy, 8 ns pulse-width. A single signal pulse of 2.7-mJ output energy at 1.57 μm wavelength, less than 5 ns pulse-width, was generated in a KTP-OPO, intracavity pumped by a passively Q-switched Nd:YAG laser.     

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 intracavity frequency doubled Nd:GdVO4/KTP green laser

A compact diode-pumped passively Q-switched intracavity frequency-doubled Nd:GdVO₄/KTP green-pulse laser was demonstrated, using Cr⁴⁺:YAG as a saturable absorber in a simple flat–flat cavity. With a 5.9 W incident pump power, a passively Q-switched green laser was obtained with an average power of 397 mW, repetition rate of 40 kHz, and pulse width of 40 ns, when the initial transmission of Cr⁴⁺:YAG was 85%. The shortest pulse width of 30 ns, the highest green peak power of 696 W and the maximum pulse energy of 21 μJ were obtained when the initial transmission of Cr⁴⁺:YAG was 70%. Under CW green operation, we obtained 440 mW output power.     

High-power diode-bar end-pumped Nd:YLF laser at 1.053 microm

We describe efficient cw operation of a Nd:YLF laser end pumped by two beam-shaped 20-W diode bars on the 1.053-microm transition. Fundamental transverse-mode operation with output power of 11.1 W for ~29.5 W of incident pump power was demonstrated. In Q-switched operation 8.4 W of average power at a pulse repetition frequency of 40 kHz and ~2.6-mJ pulse energy at a pulse repetition frequency of 1 kHz were achieved.     

Diode-pumped Q-switched Nd:GdVO4/KTP green laser formed with a flat–flat resonator

A diode-pumped acousto-optically Q-switched intracavity frequency-doubled Nd:GdVO₄/KTP green laser formed with a flat–flat resonator was demonstrated. 3.05 W of average green output power at pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of 40 kHz was obtained with an optical conversion efficiency of 18.4%, the effective intracavity frequency-doubling efficiency was 57%. At the incident pump power of 15 W, the shortest laser pulse occurred at PRF of 25 kHz with FWHM width of 14 ns, yielding the highest peak power of 7.44 kW; while the largest pulse energy of 0.14 mJ was achieved at PRF of 15 kHz.     

Continuous-wave and pulsed laser performance of Nd:LuVO4 crystal

Received August 11, 2003 We report continuous-wave and actively Q-switched laser performance achieved with Nd:LuVO4 crystal for the 4F(3/2) --> 4I(1/2) transition (corresponding wavelength of 1065.8 nm) under high-power diode pumping. Continuous-wave output power of 12.55 W is obtained with an optical conversion efficiency of 50.2%. In actively Q-switched operation the average output power reaches 5.42 W at a pulse repetition frequency of 40 kHz with 18 W of pump power incident upon the crystal, yielding an optical conversion efficiency of 30.1%. The pulse energy and peak power reach 138 microJ and 16.2 kW, respectively, at a pulse repetition frequency of 25 kHz under a pump power of 14.2 W; the pulse duration is 8.5 ns.     

AlGaInAs半导体饱和吸收体调Q特性的理论与实验研究究

利用通过金属化学气相沉积法长成的AlGaInAs饱和吸收体,对808 nm LD泵浦的Nd:YVO₄键合晶体进行被动调Q,获得了波长为1.06 mm的激光脉冲,测量了脉冲能量、脉冲宽度、脉冲重复率随泵浦功率的变化。当泵浦功率为10.57 W时,激光平均输出功率为3.45 W,斜效率为39 %,重复频率达到最大值101 kHz。当泵浦功率为8.07 W时,脉冲宽度达到最小值1.76 ns。利用速率方程对该激光器进行理论分析,计算出输出脉冲能量、峰值功率、脉冲宽度和重复频率的理论值,实验结果和理论结果基本一致。     

Nd:YVO4声光调Q腔内倍频457 nm蓝光激光器

脉冲蓝光激光器在水下探测、水下通信和遥感方面有着重要的应用前景。根据高斯光束传输的ABCD矩阵,设计了对热效应不灵敏的Z型谐振腔。利用808 nm激光二极管(LD)端面抽运Nd:YVO4晶棒,在室温下实现了4F3/2→4I9/2准三能级激光谱线跃迁。通过声光调Q和LBO腔内倍频,获得了稳定的高重复频率、高峰值功率457 nm蓝光激光输出。当抽运功率为30 W时,在重复频率为10 kHz下,获得最大单脉冲能量为56 μJ ,脉冲宽度为217 ns,峰值功率达258 W; 在重复频率为20 kHz下,获得最大平均功率为760 mW,脉冲宽度为261 ns,峰值功率为146 W。在最大平均输出功率下测量了脉冲457 nm蓝光激光器的功率稳定性,20 min之内其最大不稳定度小于2%。     

LD-pumped Q-switched Nd:YVO4 self-Raman laser

LD-pumped actively Q-switched Nd:YVO₄ self-Raman laser is presented. The maximum average output power of the self-Raman laser at 1173.6 nm was obtained to be 2.21 W at the incident pump power of 18 W and the pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of 30 kHz, with the corresponding optical conversion efficiency of 12.28%.     

LD-pumped actively Q-switched Yb:YAG laser with an acoustic-optical modulator

We have investigated an acoustic-optical Q-switched Yb:YAG laser end-pumped by a fiber-coupled laser diode. At room temperature, the 1030-nm wavelength pulsed output is realized. When the incident power was 11.3 W, a maximum average output power of 1.034 W is achieved at the repetition frequency of 20 kHz, and this corresponds to an optical conversion efficiency of 9.1%. The shortest laser pulse width of 37.4 ns was observed at the repetition frequency of 5 kHz, when the incident power was 11.3 W. The highest peak power 6.79 kW was achieved at the repetition frequency of 1.12 kHz, when the incident power was 8.7 W. The highest single-pulse energy of 319.67 μJ was achieved at the repetition frequency of 1.12 kHz, when the incident power was 10.14 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.