Compact High—Power Blue Light from a Diode—Pumped Intracavity—Doubled Nd：YAG Laser

We report an efficient continuous wave(cw) operationof 946nm and 473nm laser beams generated from a diodepumped composte Nd:YAG rod.A very simple compact linear cavity was employed with cavity length of 35mm.A composite Nd:YAG laser rod was used to release thermal effects.The maximum cw output of 3.3W at 946nm was obtained with slope efficiency of 22% at incident pump power of 17.5W.By intracavity doubling with an LBO crystal,as much as 590mW of single-ended blue output at 473nm was achieved with an optical-optical conversion efficiency of 3.4%.The total blue output would be 1.06W with overall conversion efficiency of 6.1% if the lasers emitted in both the directions were taken into account.     

Diode-Pumped Passive Q-Switched 946-nm Nd：YAG Laser with 2.1-W Average Output Power

We demonstrate a diode-pumped passive Q-switched 946nm Nd: YAG laser with a diffusion-bonded composite laser rod and a co-doped Nd, Cr:YAG as saturable absorber. The average output power of 2.1 W is generated at an incident pump power of 14.3 W. The peak power of the Q-switched pulse is 643 W with 80kHz repetition rate and 40.8 ns pulse width. The slope efficiency and optical conversion efficiency are 17.6% and 14.7%, respectively.     

A Stable Diffusion-Bonded Tm：YLF Bulk Laser with High Power Output at a Wavelength of 1889.5 nm

A high power diode-pumped diffusion-bonded Tm：YLF laser operating at 1889.5nm with a FWHM linewidth of less than 0.1 nm is reported. A Brewster plate and two Fabry-Perot etalons are inserted in the laser cavity for spectral narrowing and stabilization. Under an incident pump power of 136.8 W, 46.1 W of output power is achieved, corresponding to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 33.7% and a slope efficiency of 42.8%. The laser wavelength shift of only 0.07nm with the incident pump power from 20.1 W to 136.8W is observed. The M2 factor at maximum output power is calculated to be 2.3 in the x-axis and 2.0 in the y-axis, respectively.     

High-Power Continuous-Wave Diode-End-Pumped Intracavity Frequency Doubled Nd：YVO4 Laser at 671 nm with a Compact Three-Element Cavity

We report a high-power high-efficient continuous-wave （cw） diode-end-pumped Nd：YVO4 1342-nm laser with a short plane-parallel cavity and an efficient cw intracavity frequency-doubled red laser at 671 nm with a compact three-element cavity. At incident pump power of 20.6 W, a maximum output power of 7 W at 1342 nm is obtained with a slope effciency of 37.3%. By inserting a type-Ⅰ critical phase-matched LBO crystal as intracavity frequencydoubler, a cw red output as much as 2.85-W is achieved with an incident pump power of 16.9 W, inducing an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 16.9%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest output of diodepumped solid-state Nd：YVO4 red laser. During half an hour, the red output is very stable, and the instability of output power is less than 1%.     

Electro-optically Q-switched 946 nm laser of a composite Nd:YAG crystal

A depolarization phenomenon in an electro-optical crystal in a quasi-three-level 946 nm Nd:YAG laser is observed. A compensation of the thermal effects in electro-optical crystals is achieved by employing a quarter-wave plate, with one optical axis parallel to the laser polarization. This technique allows for the production of an electro-optically Q-switched 946 nm Nd:YAG laser at 1 k Hz. A maximum output power of 350 m W at 1 k Hz repetition frequency and 11 ns pulse duration are achieved with an output coupler of 10% transmission under the incident pump power of 11.1 W, corresponding to a peak power of ～32 k W.     

Intracavity—Doubled Self—Q—Switched Nd,Cr：YAG 946／473nm Microchip Laser

We carried out the operation of an intracavity frequency-doubled self-Q-switched Nd,Cr:YAG/NHbO3 946/473nm microchip laser pumped by a Ti:sapphire laser.The overall cavity length was about 4mm.The maximum average blue power of 12mW was achieved with a repetition rate of 13kHz at an absorbed pump ower of 545mW.The pulses of the 473nm laser had a duration of 7ns and a peak power of 132W at this pump level.The conversion efficiency was 2.2% with respect to the absorbed pump power of a 808nm laser.     

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.     

All-solid-state quasi-continuous-wave high power dispersion cavity tunable Ti:sapphire laser

An all-solid-state quasi-continuous-wave dispersion cavity tunable Ti:sapphire laser pumped by a laser diode pumped frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser is reported. Using a dense flint glass prism as the dispersion element, a tuning range from 730 to 880 nm with the linewidth of 3 nm and the pulse width of 17.2ns was obtained. The maximum output power of this laser system was 5.6 W at 786.3 nm corresponding to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 25.5% under the pump power of 22 W.     

Fluorescence spectrum,thermal properties,and continuous-wave laser performance of the mixed crystal Nd：Lu0.99La0.01 VO4

The fluorescence spectrum and thermal properties of the mixed crystal Nd：Luo.gvLa~.o1VO4 are determined. The strongest emission peak located at 1065.6 nm had a full width at half maximum （FWHM） of 2.1 nm. Continuous-wave （CW） laser performance is demonstrated by a compact planar planar cavity that is end- pumped by a diode laser. The laser output characteristics are investigated by using output couplers with different transmissions. A maximum CW output power of 8.09 W was obtained at an incident pump power of 19.4 W, which corresponds to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 41.7% and a slope efficiency of 54.6%. The dependence of optimum transmission on pump power is calculated theoretically and is found to be consistent with experimental results.     

All-solid-state quasi-continuous-wave high power dispersion cavity tunable Ti:sapphire laser

An all-solid-state quasi-continuous-wave dispersion cavity tunable Ti:sapphire laser pumped by a laser diode pumped frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser is reported. Using a dense flint glass prism as the dispersion element, a tuning range from 730 to 880 nm with the linewidth of 3 nm and the pulse width of 17.2 ns was obtained. The maximum output, power of this laser system was 5.6 W at 786.3 nm corresponding to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 25.5% under the pump power of 22 W.     

Intracavity optical parametric oscillator at 1.57-μm wavelength pumped by passive Q-switched Nd：GdVO4 laser

A high-repetition-rate eye-safe optical parametric oscillator （OPO）, using a non-critically phase-matched KTP crystal intracavity pumped by a passively Q-switched Nd：GdVO4/Cr^4＋ ：YAG laser, is experimentally demonstrated. The conversion efficiency for the average power is 7% from pump diode input to OPO signal output and the slope efficiency is up to 10.3%. With an incident pump power of 7,3 W, the compact intracavity OPO （IOPO） cavity, operating at 15 kHz, produces an average power of 0.57 W at 1570 nm with a pulse width as short as 6 ns. The peak power at 1570 nm is higher than 6.3 kW.     

Diode-Pumped Passive Q-Switched 946 nm Nd：YAG Laser with a GaAs Saturable Absorber

We report, for the first time to our knowledge, a diode-pumped passive Q-switched 946nm Nd：YAG laser by using a GaAs as saturable absorber. The maximum average output power is 1.24 W at an incident pump power of 15 W, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 10%. Laser pulses with pulse duration of 70ns and repetition rate of 330 kHz are generated.     

Characteristics of Nd：GdVO4 Laser with Different Nd-Doping Concentrations

We report the properties of a compact diode-pumped continuous-wave Nd：GdV04 laser with a linear cavity and different Nd-doped laser crystals. In a 0.2at.% Nd-doped Nd：GdVO4 laser, 1.54 W output laser power is achieved at 912nm wavelength with a slope efficiency of 24.8% at an absorbed pump power of 9.4W. With 0.3at.% Nd-doping concentration, we can obtain the either single-wavelength emission at 1064nm or 912nm or the dual-wavelength emission at 1064nm and 912nm by controlling the incident pump power. From an incident pump power of 11.6 W, the 1064nm emission between ^4Fa/2 and ^4I11/2 is suppressed completely by the 912nm emission between ^4Fa/2 and ^4I9/2. We obtain 670 mW output of the 912nm single-wavelength laser emission with a slope efficiency of 5.5% by taking an incident pump power of 18.4 W. Using a Nd：GdV04 laser with 0.4at.% Nd-doping concentration, we obtain either the single-wavelength emission at 1064nm or the dual-wavelength emission at both 1064nm and 912nm by increasing the incident pump power. We observe a strong competition process in the dualavelength laser.     

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

A corner-pumped type is a new pumping type in the diode-pumped all-solid-state lasers, which has the advantages of high pump efficiency and favourable pump uniformity. A highly efficient corner-pumped Nd:YAG/YAG composite slab laser is demonstrated in this paper. The maximal continuous-wave output power of the 1064~nm laser is up to 18.57~W with a slope efficiency and an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 44.9{\%} and 39.8{\%}, respectively. Inserting an acousto-optic $Q$-switch in the cavity, the highest average output power of the quasi-continuous wave 1064~nm laser of 6.73~W is obtained at a repetition rate of 9.26~kHz. The experimental results show that a corner-pumped type is a kind of feasible schedules in the design of diode-pumped all-solid-state lasers with low or medium output powers.     

Generation of 2.1 W Continuous Wave Blue Light by Intracavity Doubling of a Diode-End-Pumped Nd：YAG Laser in a 30 mm LBO

A folded four-mirror cavity with a composite Nd：YAG rod is optimized to obtain high efficient cw 473nm blue output. The laser could operate stably in the region of the thermal-lens focal length from 20mm to 70mm. LBO is used for intracavity frequency doubling of the 946nm transition of Nd：YAG and the optimum LBO length is investigated. A maximum output power of 2.1 Win the blue spectral range at 473nm is achieved with 30-mm-long LBO, corresponding to an optical conversion efficiency of 9.1%.     

Diode-pumped Nd:Y_xGd_(1-x)VO_4 crystal continuous-wave laser

The diode-pumped Nd:YxGd1-xVO4 crystal continuous wave (CW) laser operating at 1.06 μm with a simple plane-concave cavity and a "V-shaped" folded cavity for intracavity frequency-doubling have been studied. With the incident pump power of 8 W, an output power (1.06μm) of 3.4 W was achieved, giving an optical conversion efficiency of 42.5%. 884 mW of stable green radiation was generated with the incident pump power of 5.9 W, giving an optical conversion efficiency of 15%.     

Linear polarization output performance of Nd:YAG laser at 946 nm considering the energy-transfer upconversion

A theoretical model of quasi-three-level laser system is developed, in which both the thermally induced depolarization loss and the effect of energy-transfer upconversion are taken into account. Based on the theoretical investigation of the influences of output transmission and incident pump power on thermally induced depolarization loss, the output performance of 946 nm linearly polarized Nd:YAG laser is experimentally studied. By optimizing the transmission of output coupler,a 946 nm linearly polarized continuous-wave single-transverse-mode laser with an output power of 4.2 W and an optical–optical conversion efficiency of 16.8% is obtained, and the measured beam quality factors are M_x~2= 1.13 and M_y~2= 1.21.The theoretical prediction is in good agreement with the experimental result.     

Efficient dual-wavelength operation of Nd:LYSO laser by diode pumping aimed toward the absorption peak

By aiming the pump wavelength of the laser diode to the absorption peak at 811 nm of the (Nd 0.005 Lu 0.4975 Y 0.4975 ) 2 SiO 5 (Nd:LYSO) crystal, an efficient dual-wavelength operation at 1 075 and 1 079 nm is obtained. The maximum output power is 702 mW when the incident pump power is 2.53 W, corresponding to an optical conversion efficiency of 27.7% and a slope efficiency of 37.0%     

High-Efficiency High-Power Nd：YAG Laser under 885 nm Laser Diode Pumping

A high-efficiency high-power Nd：YAG laser under 885 nm laser diode （LD） pumping is demonstrated. The laser crystal is carefully designed, and the overlapping between the pump modes and the laser modes is optimized. The maximum output power at 1064 nm is 87W under the absorbed pump power 127.7 W, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 72.4% and an optical-optical efficiency of 68.1%. The optical-optical efficiency is 58.4% for the pump power emitted directly from the LD. To our best knowledge, this is the maximal optical-optical conversion efficiency obtained for the LD end-pumped Nd：YAG lasers so far.     

Oscillation conditions of cw simultaneous dual-wavelength Nd：YAG laser for transitions 4F3／2-4I9／2 and 4F3／2-4I11／2

The operating condition of a cw simultaneous dual-wavelength Nd:YAG laser for both {}^4F_{3/2}-{}^4I_{9/2} (quasi-three-level system) and {}^4F_{3/2}-{}^4I_{11/2}(four-level system) transitions is studied. According to this condition, the cw simultaneous dual-wavelength at 1.06μm and 946 nm in Nd:YAG crystal has been realized experimentally through an adaptive coating design of the cavity mirrors. A total power output of 2.5W of the dual-wavelength at 946nm and 1.06μm has been achieved with an optical conversion efficiency 14.3%. The experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical analysis.