Nd:YAG Lasers Operating at 1064nm and 946nm by Direct Pumping and Thermally Boosted Pumping

We demonstrate a 1064nm Nd：YAG laser by directly pumping into the upper lasing level with a tunable Ti：sapphire laser. The valid wavelength is demonstrated at 868.3nm, 875.2nm, 883.8nm, and 885.5nm, respectively. To our knowledge, this is the first time that 1064nm Nd：YAG laser pumped by 875.2nm laser. In addition, laser wavelength at 946 nm is also generated by direct pumping together with traditional pumping.     

Comparison of Nd:YAG Ceramic Laser Pumped at 885nm and 808nm

Laser performance of 1064 nm domestic Nd：YAG ceramic lasers for 885 nm direct pumping and 808 nm traditional pumping are compared. Higher slope efficiency of 34% and maximum output power of 16.5 W are obtained for the 885nm pump with a 6ram length 1 at.% Nd：YAG ceramic. The advantages for 885nm direct pumping are discussed in detail. This pumping scheme for highly doping a Nd：YAG ceramic laser is considered as an available way to generate high power and good beam quality simultaneously.     

Laser Performance of Nd：GGG Operating at 938 nm

We report an efficient diode-pumped Nd-doped Gadolinium gailium garnet （GGG） continuous-wave （CW） laser operating at 938nm. Laser action of 1.6at.% Nd-doped GGG crystais with different lengths and temperatures are aiso investigated. The maximum output power of 620mW is obtained at the incident pump power of 5.0 W with a slope efficiency of 15%.     

Generation of 170-fs Laser Pulses at 1053nm by a Passively Mode-Locked Yb:YAG Laser

A novel method is developed to obtain 1.05μm laser operation with a Yb：YAG laser. By using a Yb：YAG crystal with proper length and doping concentration, a femtosecond Yb： YAG laser is realized at the central wavelength of 1053nm. The measured pulse duration and spectral bandwidth （FWHM） are 170fs and 7nm; the repetition rate is 80 MHz. Under a power pump of 2 W, an average mode-locking power of 180mW is achieved.     

A High-Energy Good-Beam-Quality Krypton-Lamp-Pumped Nd：YAG Solid-State Laser with One Pump Cavity

We investigate a high-energy good-beam-quality krypton-lamp-pumped pulsed Nd： YA G solid-state laser with one pump cavity. The symmetrical resonator laser is developed and is rated at 80 J with beam parameter product 12mm mrad. The total system electro-optics efficiency of the lamp-pumped YAG laser is as high as 3.3% and the stability of output energy is ±2% with pulse width tunable between 0.1 ms and 10ms. The experimental results are consistent with the theoretical analysis and simulation.     

Three-Rod Resonator for Krypton Lamp Pumped 1.8 kW Continuous-Wave Nd：YAG Laser

A three-rod series resonator cw Nd:YAG laser suitable for the industrial applications is presented. The symmetrical resonator laser has been developed and is rated at 1820-W output power with beam parameter product 24 mm.mrad. By utilizing the symmetrical resonator design, the characteristic of beam with multi-rod is not obviously decreased compared with that of a single one. The system total electro-optics efficiency of lamp pumped YAG crystal is as high as 4.0%. The main factors, which affect output power and beam quality of high power solid-state laser module, are theoretically analysed.     

Energetic and thermal performance of high-gain diode-side-pumped Nd:YAG rods

We investigated the energetic and thermal performance of a diode-side-pumped Nd:YAG rod laser with up to 50 W power deposited as excess heat into a 3-mm-diameter, 10-cm-length rod. The rod design produces an extremely flat gain profile resulting in “textbook” expressions of thermal lensing and birefringence. Thermal and energetic measurements are compared to corresponding “textbook” theoretical expressions. Discrepancies between various published thermo-mechanical YAG parameters are resolved by a self-consistent set of measured and calculated data for rod thermal lens focal lengths, birefringence depolarization and ratio of heat to stored energy (χ). Measured thermal and energetic performance under lasing and nonlasing conditions are presented, which agree with published theoretical expressions and measurements. Compensation of rod thermal lensing with simple spherical concave lenses is demonstrated. In addition various methods for compensating birefringence depolarization are theoretically and experimentally analyzed and compared. Received: 19 July 1999 / Revised version: 22 October 1999 / Published online: 23 February 2000     

Passively Q-switched Nd:YAG pumped UV lasers at 280 and 374 nm

Pulsed UV lasers at the wavelengths of 374 and 280 nm are realized by cascaded second harmonic generation (SHG) and sum frequency generation (SFG) processes using a Nd:YAG laser at 1123 nm. The Nd:YAG laser is longitudinally pumped and passively Q-switched, and it has a high peak power of 3.2 kW. The UV peak powers at 280 and 374 nm are 100 and 310 W, with pulse lengths of 6 and 8 ns, respectively. Spectral broadening of 374 nm laser by stimulated Raman scattering is studied in single mode pure silica core UV fiber. Realizations of UV lasers enabling compact design at 280 and 374 nm wavelengths are demonstrated.     

Intensity Tuning in Single Mode Microchip Nd：YAG Laser with External Cavity

We investigate the characteristics of intensity tuning in a single mode microchip Nd：YAG laser with an external cavity. The undulation of laser intensity in a period of A/2 change of the internal cavity length is observed. Two different optical feedback cases are performed. One is an external cavity reflector perfectly aligned and the other is an external cavity reflector tilted. However, the fluctuation frequency of laser intensity in a period of A/2 change of the internal cavity length in these two cases is found to be determined by the ratio of external cavity length to internal cavity length. Meanwhile, for the tilted external cavity, the fluctuation frequency is also related to multiple feedbacks in the tilted external cavity.     

Highly Stable, Diode-Pumped Nd：YLF Regenerative Amplifier

We present the design and experimental results for a diode pumped Nd：YLF regenerative amplifier applied to amplify a nanosecond laser pulse. Numerical simulation shows that the maximum output energy and the best stability can be obtained when the regenerative amplifier operates in a saturated mode for all pulse duration and temporal profiles. Using extra post-pulse is a good method to decrease the square-pulse distortion caused by gain saturation effect. The amplifier shows output energy of 4.2mJ with a total energy gain of more than 10^7 and output energy stability of better than 1% rms. When extra post-pulse is added, square-pulse distortion is decreased from 1.33 to 1.17 for the amplifier that is seeded with an optical pulse of 3ns.     

Green-Beam Generation of 40W by Use of an Intracavity Frequency-Doubled Diode Side-Pumped Nd:YAG Laser

A cw diode side-pumped Nd：YAO laser is frequency doubled to 532nm with an intracavity KTP crystal in a Vshaped arrangement, achieving an output power of 40 W corresponding to an optical-optical conversion efficiency of 9.7%. The instabilities and the M2-parameters of the laser are measured at different output powers after the beam is filtered.     

High power continuous-wave diode-laser-pumped Nd:YAG laser

We report on a diode-laser-pumped cw Nd: YAG laser operating at a power level of 150 W. By using a transverse pump geometry, the radiation of 54 diode lasers with an output power of 10 W each is coupled into a Nd:YAG rod. In multimode operation, an optical slope efficiency of 32% and an optical to optical efficiency of 29% are obtained. In TEM₀₀ operation, an output power of more than 30 W is realized with an optical to optical efficiency of 10%.     

High-power diode-end-pumped Nd:YVO4 laser: thermally induced fracture versus pump-wavelength sensitivity

We report two kinds of compact and efficient diode-end-pumped TEM₀₀ lasers with output power >25 W at ≈50 W of incident pump power. One laser consists of a single 0.3 at. % Nd:YVO₄ crystal in a V-type cavity, the other laser includes two 0.5 at. % Nd:YVO₄ crystals in a linear cavity. Experimental results show that lowering Nd³⁺ concentration can be beneficial in extending the fracture-limited pump power but it also increases the sensitivity of the pump wavelength due to the overlapping efficiency. Received: 19 February 2000 / Revised version: 30 May 2000 / Published online: 20 September 2000     

Diode end-pumped high-efficiency Nd:YAG laser

A close-coupled scheme has been developed to end-pump the Nd:YAG rod using diode lasers tuned to 808 nm. By using a single diode laser, an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of about 40% has been demonstrated in the multimode operation at 1064 nm.     

High-Power Diode-Side-Pumped Intracavity-Frequency-Doubled Continuous Wave 532 nm Laser

An efficient and high-power diode-side-pumped cw 532nm green laser based on a V-shaped cavity geometry, and capable of generating 22.7 W green radiation with opticM conversion effciency of 8.31%, has been demonstrated. The laser is operated with rms noise amplitude of less than 1% and with M2-parameter of about 6.45 at the top of the output power. This laser has the potential for scaling to much higher output power.     

Diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:GdVO4 laser at 1342 nm with V:YAG saturable absorber

We have demonstrated an efficient diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:GdVO₄ laser working at 1342 nm by using an uncoated V³⁺:YAG crystal as the saturable absorber, in which both a-cut and c-cut Nd:GdVO₄ crystals are employed. At the maximum absorbed pump power of 9.45 W, the maximum average output power can reach 519 mW and 441 mW corresponding to the output coupler with different transmission of 3% and 10% by using an a-cut Nd:GdVO₄ crystal at 1342 nm, while the shortest pulse duration could be as low as 21.7 ns and 22.3 ns with the repetition rate of 48.41 kHz and 53.25 kHz by using a c-cut Nd:GdVO₄ crystal, corresponding to the output coupler with different transmission of 3% and 10% at 1342 nm, and the single Q-switched pulse energy are 6.67 uJ and 7.06 uJ, the pulse peak power are 307 W and 316 W, respectively. The experimental results show that c-cut Nd:GdVO₄ laser can generate shorter pulse with higher peak power in comparison with a-cut one.     

Additive pulse mode-locked Nd: YAG laser

Additive pulse mode locking applied to lamppumped Nd: YAG lasers results in an attractive source of picosecond pulses at 1.06 m or 1.32 m with average powers at the Watt level. We provide detailed information on construction and operation and give data on performance. A modified active stabilization scheme allows not only improved stability of operation but also insight into the dynamics of pulse formation.     

A flashlamp-pumped 946 nm Nd:YAG laser

Generation of 946 nm radiation from a commercially available, flashlamp-pumped Nd:YAG laser was investigated. By suppression of the high-gain 1.064 m transition and with a specially designed cooling system, a stable emission at 946 nm was achieved in the temperature range 300–240 K. At a repetition rate of 10 Hz laser output powers of 100mW and 500 mW were obtained at room temperature and 240 K respectively. The temperature dependence of unsaturated gain, slope efficiency and pumping threshold were determined.S. Dimov is supported by a fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation     

Q-switched and mode-locked diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser with an LT-GaAs

Simultaneous Q-switching and mode-locking (QML) is accomplished in a diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser using low-temperature GaAs (LT-GaAs) as the saturable absorber, which also acts as an output coupler at the same time. The repetition rate of the Q-switched envelope increased from 25 to 40 kHz as the pump power increased from 2.2 to 6.9 W. The mode-locked pulses inside the Q-switched pulse envelope had a repetition rate of 714 MHz. A maximum average output power of 770 mW was obtained.     

Investigation on amplitude and frequency noise of injection-locked diode-pumped Nd:YAG lasers

Amplitude and frequency stability of an injection-locked diode-pumped miniature Nd:YAG ring laser were measured. The mechanism of amplitude-noise transfer to the injection-locked slave laser was experimentally investigated and consequences for the injection locking of solid-state lasers operating at high output powers are discussed.