All solid-state sum-frequency generation of 1.12-W continuous-wave laser at 588 nm

A new resonator design for doubly resonant continuous-wave (CW) intracavity sum-frequency mixing (SFM) is reported. 1.12 W of coherent radiation at 588 nm is generated by mixing 1062-nm Nd:GdVO4laser and 1319-nm Nd:YAG laser. The optical-to-optical conversion efficiency is up to 3.7%.     

All-solid-state doubly resonant sum-frequency continuous-wave laser at 555 nm

A new kind of resonator for doubly resonant continuous-wave (CW) intracavity sum-frequency mixing(SFM) is presented. A coherent radiation of 327 mW at 555 nm is generated by mixing 1342-nm Nd:YVO4 laser and 946-nm Nd:YAG laser. The M2 beam quality factor of the sum-frequency mixed yellow-green laser is less than 1.7. The low-noise characteristic of the yellow laser is demonitrated.     

Generation of all-solid-state, high-power continuous-wave 213-nm light based on sum-frequency mixing in CsLiB6O10

Achievement of more than 100 mW of pure continuous-wave deep-ultraviolet radiation at 213 nm has been demonstrated in an efficient all-solid-state laser system that uses two Brewster-cut CsLiB6O10 (CLBO) crystals. The first crystal is used for 266-nm generation by external resonant doubling of 532-nm radiation from a frequency-doubled Nd:YVO4 laser. Subsequent sum-frequency mixing is performed in a second CLBO crystal placed in a diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser cavity to mix the single-pass 266-nm output with circulating 1064-nm light.     

Self-sum- and -difference-frequency mixing in GdAl(3)(BO(3))(4):Nd(3+) for generation of tunable ultraviolet and infrared radiation

We exploited Nd(3+) laser emission at 1061.9 nm ((4)F(3/2)?(4)I(11/2) channel) in a self-chi((2)) active GdAl(3)(BO(3))(4):Nd(3+) laser crystal. UV radiation was obtained from a 1.8% yield from self-sum-frequency mixing: 1/pump + 1/1061.9 = 1/UV, during pumping in the Nd(3+) (4)G(5/2)-(2)G(7/2) levels near 588 nm. The UV tunability had a range of 378-382 nm. We have demonstrated, for the first time to our knowledge, generation of coherent IR radiation from a self-difference-frequency mixing laser: 1/pump - 1/1061.9 = 1/IR. We got a 0.5% yield and tunability in the 1305-1365-nm range.     

Self-optical parametric oscillation in periodically poled neodymium-doped lithium niobate

Self-optical parametric oscillation is demonstrated for the first time to our knowledge in a periodically poled neodymium-doped lithium niobate (Nd:PPLN) crystal. The crystal is pumped by a cw Ti:sapphire laser at 813.5 nm. The Nd(3+) ions absorb the 813.5-nm radiation to generate 1084-nm laser oscillation. The internally Q switched 1084-nm radiation pumps the periodically poled lithium niobate host matrix to generate optical parametric oscillation at 1.55 and 3.6 microm . Up to 24% conversion efficiency from laser to signal is observed.     

All solid-state CW orange-red laser at 620 nm

We report for the first time a continuous-wave (CW) orange-red radiation at 620 nm by intracavity sum-frequency generation of 1085-nm Nd:YVO₄ laser and 1444-nm Nd:YAG laser. Using type-II critical phase matching KTP crystal, 620-nm orange-red laser was obtained by 1085- and 1444-nm intra-cavity sum-frequency mixing, and output power of 223 mW was demonstrated. At the output power level of 223 mW, the output power stability is better than 3% and laser beam quality M ² factor is 1.32.     

Generation of tunable 187.9-196-nm radiation in beta-Ba(2)BO(4)

Tunable 187.9-196-nm vacuum-ultraviolet radiation was generated at room temperature in a beta barium borate crystal by sum-frequency mixing of Nd:YAG laser radiation and the second harmonic of a dye laser pumped by the second harmonic of the same Nd:YAG laser. By use of the advantageous noncollinear phase-matching configuration, a peak power of 1.3 kW was obtained at 194 nm with input power densities as low as 79MW/cm(2) for 1064-nm and 0.65MW/cm(2) for 237.3-nm radiation.     

High-power picosecond LiB3O5 optical parametric oscillators tunable in the blue spectral range

The paper reports on an experimental investigation and numerical analysis of noncritically and critically phasematched LiB₃O₅ (LBO) optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) synchronously pumped by the third harmonic of a cw diode-pumped mode-locked Nd:YVO₄ oscillator–amplifier system. The laser system generates 9.0 W of 355-nm mode-locked radiation with a pulse duration of 7.5 ps and a repetition rate of 84 MHz. The LBO OPO, synchronously pumped by the 355-nm pulses, generates a signal wave tunable in the blue spectral range 457–479 nm. With a power of up to 5.0 W at 462 nm and 1.7 W at 1535 nm the conversion efficiency is 74%. The OPO is characterized experimentally by measuring the output power (and its dependence on the pump power, the transmission of the output coupler and the resonator length) and the pulse properties (such as pulse duration and spectral width). Also the beam quality of the resonant and nonresonant waves is investigated. The measured results are compared with the predictions of a numerical analysis for Gaussian laser and OPO beams. In addition to the blue-signal output visible-red 629-nm radiation is generated by sum-frequency mixing of the 1.535-μm infrared idler wave with the residual 1.064-μm laser radiation. A power of 1.25 W of 1.535-μm idler radiation and 5.7 W of 1.064-μm laser light generated a red 629-nm output power of 2.25 W. Received: 2 February 2000 / Revised version: 28 July 2000 / Published online: 22 November 2000     

Diode-Pumped Nd:YAP sum-frequency mixing orange-red laser at 616 nm

We report for the first time a coherent orange-red radiation at 616 nm by intracavity sum-frequency generation of the 1080 and 1433 nm laser-lines of two Nd:YAP lasers. Orange-red laser is obtained by using a doubly linear resonator, type-II critical phase matching KTiOPO₄ (KTP) crystal sum-frequency mixing. With a total diode pump power of 26.5 W (8.7 W pump power for 1080 nm Nd:YAP laser and 17.8 W pump power for 1433 nm Nd:YAP laser), TEM00 mode orange-red laser at 616 nm of 127 mW is obtained. The power stability in 30 min is better than 3.3%.     

Investigation of intracavity third-harmonic generation at 1.06 μm in YCa4O(BO3)3 crystals

Intracavity sum-frequency mixing of 1.06 μm and 532 nm in YCa₄O(BO₃)₃ (YCOB) crystals cut for different type-I phase-matching directions of (θ,ϕ)=(106°,77.2°), (111°, 79.6°) and (65°, 82.8°) was investigated in a compact diode-end-pumped acousto-optical Q-switched Nd:YVO₄/KTP laser formed with a three-mirror folded resonator. The maximum 355-nm average output power of 124 mW was obtained in the phase-matching direction of (106°, 77.2°) with a pump-to-ultraviolet conversion efficiency of 3.3% at the repetition frequency of 20 kHz. Received: 17 September 2001 / Revised version: 27 November 2001 / Published online: 17 January 2002     

TEM00 terawatt amplification by use of micro-optic spatial mode conversion

Micro-optic technology is used in a terawatt multipass Ti:sapphire amplifier to convert high-multimode, 532-nm radiation from an unstable resonator Nd:YAG laser into a TEM00 amplified output without sacrificing the amplifier-to-pump energy conversion efficiency. Experimental measurements and Fourier analysis of the spatial mode show a 3.8-fold increase in the peak irradiance and an order-of-magnitude improvement in the spatial contrast.     

Chirped-pulse amplification of ultraviolet femtosecond pulses by use of Ce(3+):LiCaAlF(6) as a broadband, solid-state gain medium

Chirped-pulse amplification in the ultraviolet region is demonstrated by use of a broadband Ce(3+): LiCaAlF(6) laser medium. A modified bow-tie-style four-pass amplifier pumped by 100-mJ, 266-nm pulses from a Q -switched Nd:YAG laser has a gain factor of 370 and delivers 6-mJ, 290-nm pulses. After dispersion compensation, the output pulses can be compressed to 115 fs.     

Diode-laser-pumped continuous-wave doubly linear resonator sum-frequency mixing red laser at 689 nm

We report for the first time a coherent red radiation at 689 nm by intracavity sum-frequency generation of the 1319- and 1444-nm laser-lines of two Nd:YAG lasers. Using type-II critical phase matching KTP crystal, 689-nm red laser was obtained by 1444- and 1319-nm intra-cavity sum-frequency mixing, and output power of 156 mW was obtained. At the output power level of 156 mW, the output power stability is better than 5.0% and laser beam quality M ² factor is 1.23.     

LD侧面抽运Nd:YAP腔内三倍频蓝光激光器

研制了一台LD侧面抽运Nd:YAP腔内三倍频447.1 nm脉冲蓝光激光器.采用列阵高频激光二极管侧面抽运Nd:YAP晶体,使用V型折叠腔,LN晶体电光调Q,输出高峰值功率的1 341.4 nm偏振基频光.选取KTP晶体Ⅱ类临界相位匹配倍频,获得670.7 nm红光.使用LBO晶体Ⅰ类临界相位匹配把670.7 nm的倍频光与1 341.4 nm的基频光进行和频,获得三倍频447.1 nm的蓝光输出.实验结果表明：优化后的V型折叠腔,可提高非线性转换效率,在平均抽运功率92.4 W时,获得了平均功率887 mW、峰值功率17.7 kW、脉宽50 ns的偏振蓝光输出,光-光转换效率为0.96%.     

All-solid-state doubly resonant intracavity frequency sum mixing orange yellow laser with 3.2 W output power at 593.5 nm

A compact and efficient 593.5 nm orange-yellow laser is realized using doubly resonant intracavity sum frequency mixing. Two Nd: YVO₄ crystals are employed as the gain crystals. In two sub-cavities, 1064 nm radiation from one Nd: YVO₄ and 1342 nm radiation from the other Nd: YVO₄ are mixed to generate 593.5 nm orange-yellow laser. In the overlapping of the two cavities, sum frequency mixing is achieved in a type I critical phase matching (CPM) LBO crystal. An output power of 3.2 W at the wavelength of 593.5 nm is obtained with total incident pump power of 38 W. The optical to optical conversion efficiency is up to 8.4% and the stability of the output power is better than 2.48% in 8 h. To the best knowledge, this it the highest watt-level laser at 593.5 nm generated by diode end pump all-solid-state technology.     

High-power and high optical conversion efficiency diode-end-pumped laser with multi-segmented Nd:YAG/Nd:YVO_4

A novel flat-flat resonator consisting of two crystals(Nd:YAG + Nd:YVO_4) is established for power scaling in a diode-end-pumped solid-state laser. We systematically compare laser characteristics between multi-segmented(Nd:YAG + Nd:YVO_4) and conventional composite(Nd:YAG + Nd:YAG) crystals to demonstrate the feasibility of spectral line matching for output power scale-up in end-pumped lasers. A maximum continuous-wave output power of 79.2 W is reported at 1064 nm, with M_x~2= 4.82, M_y~2= 5.48, and a pumping power of 136 W in the multi-segmented crystals(Nd:YAG + Nd:YVO_4). Compared to conventional composite crystals(Nd:YAG + Nd:YAG), the optical-optical conversion efficiency of multi-segmented crystals(Nd:YAG + Nd:YVO4) from 808 nm to 1064 nm is enhanced from 30% to 58.8%,while the laser output sensitivity as affected by the diode-laser temperature is reduced from 55% to 9%.     

Diode-pumped 1123-nm Nd:YAG laser

We demonstrated a diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser with a plano-concave resonator. When the pump power is 1.57 W, the output power of 1123-nm laser is 132 mW at the temperature of 20 ℃, and the power change is less than 2% in an hour. A periodically poled LiNbOa (PPLN) was used as outer cavity frequency-doubling crystal and 561-nm laser was observed.     

Diode-laser-based ultraviolet-absorption sensor for high-speed detection of the hydroxyl radical

A new diode-laser-based UV-absorption sensor for high-speed detection of the hydroxyl radical (OH) is described. The sensor is based on sum-frequency generation of UV radiation at 313.5 nm by mixing the output of a 763-nm distributed-feedback diode laser with that of a 532-nm high-power, diode-pumped, frequency-doubled Nd:YVO4 laser in a beta-barium borate crystal. Approximately 25 microW of UV radiation is generated and used to probe rotational transitions in the A2 Sigma+ -X2II (v' = 0, v" = 0) electronic transition of OH. Single-sweep, single-pass measurements of temperature and OH concentration in a stoichiometric C2H4-air flame are demonstrated at rates up to 20 kHz.     

Generation of femtosecond radiation at 211 nm by femtosecond pulse upconversion in the field of a picosecond pulse

We show that, in the case of sum-frequency mixing, one can alleviate group-velocity mismatch between IR and UV pulses by choosing different pulse widths, thus extending the interaction length of ultrashort pulses within nonlinear crystals. By fifth-harmonic generation with a Nd:glass laser, we demonstrate efficient frequency upconversion of 195-fs 264-nm pulses under the envelope of 0.9-ps 1055-nm pulses in beta-barium borate crystal, yielding <270-fs pulses with energy of up to 110muJ at 211 nm.     

39.5% conversion of low-power Q-switched Nd:YAG laser radiation to 266 nm by use of a resonant ring cavity

A simple ring cavity consisting of mirrors reflecting at the second harmonic is used to generate the fourth harmonic of low-power Q-switched Nd:YAG laser pulses. A large beam waist of 1 mm minimized the effects of double refraction and thermal loading of the nonlinear crystals. By simulating the low-power pulses with a small portion of the output from a 30-Hz flash-lamp-pumped Q-switched Nd:YAG laser, we obtained IR-UV energy conversion as great as 39.5% to yield 84-mW average power at 266 nm from 213 mW of single-mode 1064-nm radiation.