Partially end-pumped Nd:YAG slab laser with a hybrid resonator

A Nd:YAG slab is partially end pumped by a diode laser stack with three diode laser bars. The pumped volume has a rectangular cross section. A hybrid resonator, which is stable in the plane of small dimension and is off-axis unstable in the plane of large dimension of the gain cross section, was used to yield highly efficient laser operation at diffraction-limited beam quality. The laser design and experimental results are reported.     

A laser-diode-pumped acoustic-optic Q-switched Nd:YVO4 slab laser with a hybrid resonator

A 32.1 W laser-diode-stack pumped acoustic-optic Q-switched Nd:YVO₄ slab laser with hybrid resonator at 1064 nm was demonstrated with the pumping power of 112 W and repetition rate of 40 kHz, the pulse duration was 32.47 ns. The slope efficiency and optical-to-optical efficiency were 37 and 28.7%, respectively. At the repetition rate of 20 kHz and pumping power of 90 W, the average output power and pulse duration were 20.4 W and 20.43 ns, respectively. With the pumping power of 112 W, the beam quality M² factors in CW operation were measured to be 1.3 in stable direction and 1.6 in unstable direction.     

Efficient end-pumped Q-switched 1053 nm Nd:YLF laser with a plane-parallel resonator

In this study, a compact and efficient Nd:YLF laser at 1053 nm has been reported without inserting optical intracavity element to suppress the stronger line of 1047 nm. According to theoretical analysis and calculation, the thermal focal length of 1047 nm is negative while that of 1053 nm is positive in plane-parallel resonator. Hence 1053 nm laser was stable in this cavity. In our experiment, 7.5 W laser output at σ-polarized 1053 nm has been obtained with optical–optical efficiency of 38.8%. As the pulse repetition rate is 20 kHz, the pulse width is 50 ns and the peak power is calculated to be 7.5 kW.     

Non-Gaussian fundamental laser mode oscillation in end-pumped Nd:YVO4 microchip laser

Far-Field non-Gaussian fundamental transverse modes have been obtained in CW end-pumped Nd:YVO₄ microchip laser for particular cavity lengths. Such profiles appear at threshold and are not distorted when pump power increases but they strongly depend on the pump to mode size ratio. An implemented theoretical model qualitatively reproduces these transverse profiles. It is based on the hypothesis of diffraction effects of the resonant intra-cavity field on a Gaussian-gain profile. Dependence of the pump to mode size ratio on such profiles will be also theoretically explained.     

Diode-end-pumped 1D top-hat Nd:YVO4 slab laser

A one-dimensional (1D) top-hat, diode-end-pumped, electro-optically Q-switched Nd:YVO4 slab laser is demonstrated. Under the pump power of 175.5 W, 26.3-W output power is obtained with the repetition rate of 5 kHz and the pulse width of 4.3 ns. The output beam has a good top-hat beam profile in both the near field and the far field.     

LD端抽运平直腔Nd:YVO4固态激光器的输出功率特性研究

对LD端抽运平直腔Nd:YVO4固态激光器输出功率特性受激光器内在诸因素(热透镜效应、腔长、激活孔径等)的制约关系进行了研究.并用传播圆-变换圆图解分析方法给出了合理的解释,同时,对进一步提高其输出功率特性指出了方向.     

High-power diode-pumped Q-switched intracavity frequency-doubled Nd:YVO4 laser with a sandwich-type resonator

A compact and efficient diode-pumped acousto-optically Q -switched intracavity frequency-doubled Nd:Y VO(4)/KTP green laser is demonstrated. With 0.5-at. % Nd:Y VO(4), greater than 4.6 W of 532-nm average power at a repetition rate of 50 kHz was generated with 17-W pump power, corresponding to a conversion efficiency of 27%. At 10-30 kHz the pulse width is shorter than 10 ns, and the peak power is higher than 13 kW.     

激光二极管端面抽运的1.34μm Nd:YVO4平凹腔型激光器

理论上分析了端面抽运的1.34μm Nd:YVO4平凹腔型激光器的各项参数;实验上实现了LD端面抽运的1.34μm Nd:YVO4平凹腔型激光器的运转.     

High-repetition-rate Nd:YVO4 slab laser with a 1-D top-hat output beam

A high-repetition-rate electro-optic Q-switched Nd:YVO₄ slab laser is demonstrated in this paper. The Nd:YVO₄ slab inside the compact resonator is end-pumped by a 2-bar laser diode stack. The output beam with one dimension (1-D) top-hat intensity distribution at both near field and far field is generated. Continuous wave (CW) output of 13 5 W is obtained under the total pump power of 50 W. At the repetition rate of 40 kHz, the energy per pulse is 0.32 mJ with its pulse width of 26.3 ns. At 20 kHz, we have achieved the maximum pulse energy of 0.56 mJ and 56 kW peak power with 10 ns pulse width.     

LD抽运的折叠腔Nd∶YVO4/KTP倍频红光激光器

对LD端面抽运的Nd∶YVO₄/KTP腔内倍频激光器的三镜折叠腔结构进行优化设计,研究了总腔长、输入镜曲率半径和Nd∶YVO₄和KTP晶体的热效应对激光谐振腔的稳定区域、Nd∶YVO₄晶体内基模光束半径的影响。实验结果表明:该方法所得出的结论与理论相吻合。在实验中比较了折叠腔不同折叠角度的红光输出功率,并获得了最佳折叠角度为25°,其有效倍频效率为10.8%。最后使用基频光的偏振特性与KTP的相位匹配之间的关系对实验结果进行理论解释。     

Monolithic Nd:YVO4 slab oscillator-amplifier

We report on a compact, efficient, and reliable monolithic Nd:YVO(4) slab oscillator-amplifier with an output power of 29.3 W in cw operation and an optical-to-optical efficiency of 24%. In electro-optically Q-switched operation, 28.8 W of average power at a repetition rate of 100 kHz with a pulse width of 15 ns was measured. The RMS stability of the pulse energy is better than 1.7%. The beam quality M(2) in both cw and pulse models was under 1.3.     

Passive mode locking of a Nd:YVO4 laser with an extra-long optical resonator

We describe a mode-locked, diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 laser with a very long optical cavity operating at 1064 nm. High-modulation, InGaAs quantum-well, semiconductor saturable-absorber mirrors were used for passive mode locking, providing a stable train of 13-ps pulses. A novel zero-q-transformation multipass cell provided a variable-length optical cavity as much as 100 m long. The output beam had M2 < 1.1 at average powers of 4.1, 3.9, and 3.5 W at repetition rates of 4.1, 2.6, and 1.5 MHz, respectively. To the best of our knowledge the last of these is the lowest repetition rate ever generated directly from a mode-locked nonfiber solid-state laser without cavity dumping.     

LD双端泵浦U型腔Nd∶YVO4激光器稳定性研究

 基于传输矩阵理论,针对端面抽运的U型腔Nd∶YVO4固体激光器谐振腔的稳定性进行了理论分析和数值模拟。通过改变“U”型腔各个臂长得到不同腔臂长条件下谐振腔的稳区范围和晶体中心处的振荡光斑,比较稳区范围以及振荡光斑,找出一组腔参数值使谐振腔能够在较高泵浦功率下保持稳定且振荡光斑足够理想。按照确定的腔参数值进行了具体实验,实验结果表明:按选定参数设计的谐振腔在调Q重复频率为100kHz,泵浦功率为60W时,激光器能够稳定工作并输出21.6W的高重频激光,谐振腔稳区范围的变化规律与理论计算基本吻合。     

激光二极管端面抽运的1.34μm Nd:YVO4三镜折叠腔型激光器

理论上提出了三镜折叠腔的稳区理论,所得结论对设计激光器具有重要的指导意义;实验上实现了激光二极管端面抽运的1.34μm Nd:YVO4三镜折叠腔型激光器的运转.     

An 110 W Nd:YVO4 slab laser with high beam quality output

In this paper we report on experimental results of an end-pumped Nd:YVO₄ slab laser with a hybrid resonator. 110 W output power with beam propagation factor M² of 1.3 and 1.5 in two orthogonal directions was obtained. After a spatial filter the typical beam propagation factors at 50 W operation were 1.09 and 1.2.     

High beam quality and compact diode end-pumped Nd:YVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> slab laser with a hybrid resonator

A compact, high power and high beam quality diode-end-pumped CW Nd:YVO₄ slab 1064 nm laser with a hybrid resonator is demonstrated. The maximum output power of 23.0 W is obtained under the pump power of 66.7 W, which gives the slope efficiency and optical conversion efficiency of 52.0 and 34.0%, respectively. The beam quality M² factors are measured to be 1.5 in the unstable direction and 1.7 in the stable direction. The power stability of the LD end-pumped slab laser at an output power of 19 W is measured to be 0.7% for half an hour operation.     

Highly efficient and compact laser-diode end-pumped Q-switched Nd:YVO4/KTP red laser

A laser-diode end-pumped acousto-optic (AO) Q-switched Nd:YVO₄/KTP red laser by using a plano-concave cavity was demonstrated for the first time. This linear cavity configuration could guarantee not only moderate intracavity focusing on KTP crystal but also good beam quality. Under the absorbed pump power of 14.8 W, the maximum average output power at 671 nm was obtained to be 1.37 W at the repetition frequency of 15 kHz, with the corresponding optical conversion efficiency of 9.3% and the pulse width of 33 ns. The energy of a single pulse and corresponding peak power are estimated to be 91.3 μJ and 2.77 kW, respectively. The rate equations are also numerically solved by introducing the nonlinear loss resulting from generation of second-harmonic wave.     

Output power and intracavity intensity profiles of a quasi-continuous end-pumped Nd:YVO4 self-Raman mini laser

The paper presents experimental investigation and modeling of an end-pumped quasi-continuous-wave YVO₄/Nd:YVO₄ mini self-Raman laser. The dependence of the Stokes output power on the pump power in the range from 3 to 17.5 W has been measured. As much as 1.76 W of an average Stokes power, corresponding to a total optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of about 10%, has been obtained. The transverse profiles of the laser (at the fundamental wavelength) and the Stokes beam intensity have been recorded at the output mirror and in the vicinity of the boundary between the pure and Nd-doped parts of the Raman crystal. These distributions have been approximated by the sum of Gaussian and super-Gaussian distributions with corresponding weights. We propose a model of such lasers that takes into account the features of intracavity self-frequency Raman conversion in lasers with highly inhomogeneous non-Gaussian spatial distributions of the pump, laser, and Stokes beam intensity in the cavity. The results of modeling are in good agreement with the experimental data.     

LD泵浦高功率高斜效率Nd:YVO4声光调Q激光器

 报道了采用激光二极管(LD)端面泵浦Nd:YVO₄双端键合晶体高平均功率高斜效率1 064 nm声光调Q激光器。通过对大功率泵浦情况下激光晶体热透镜效应进行分析和估算,优化了模式匹配及热稳腔结构参数,实现了稳定的高功率高斜效率准连续脉冲激光输出。在泵浦功率46.8 W、最高重复频率50 kHz下,获得最大平均输出功率17.6 W,光-光转换效率为37.6%,斜效率达70.1%,脉冲宽度51.3 ns;在最低重复频率10 kHz下,获得最大单脉冲能量0.91 mJ,峰值功率为46.2 kW,脉冲宽度为19.8 ns。     

Nd:YVO4复合腔激光器双波长激光输出及腔内和频研究

 采用两个重叠的共线支腔构成的三镜复合腔,实现LD泵浦的Nd:YVO₄激光器的1 064 nm和1 342 nm双波长激光运转。根据双波长振荡阈值相等条件,数值计算了1 064 nm支腔和1 342 nm支腔的腔长、支腔的输出耦合镜透过率之间的关系。合理选择两个支腔的参数,当泵浦功率13 W时,获得1 064 nm激光功率1.59 W,1 342 nm激光功率1.17 W的双波长激光输出。在满足腔内1 064 nm 和1 342 nm双波长光子数密度相等的条件下,计算了腔内和频的复合腔Nd:YVO4激光器的腔参数。采用Ⅱ类临界相位匹配KTP晶体作为和频器件,当808 nm泵浦光功率为12 W时,获得340 mW的和频593 nm激光输出。