500 W Nd:YAG zigzag slab MOPA laser

A MOPA Nd:YAG laser with end-pumped zigzag slab architecture has been developed. 277 W laser output is obtained from the master-oscillator stage, corresponding to the average slope efficiency of 35.9% and the optical conversion efficiency of 34.6%, which emits the maximum power of 402 with 1163 W of pump power. Furthermore, the amplifier stage produces 505 W with the slope efficiency of 24% and the extraction efficiency of 25%. The beam quality is estimated as M _x ² ≈ 10, M _y ² ≈ 50 in the orthogonal directions respectively.     

Highly efficient cryogenically-cooled Yb:YAG laser

A MOPA laser system for high pulse energy and high average power has been developed by using a cryogenic Yb:YAG. In the regenerative amplifier with our original TRAM architecture, the high pulse energies of 6.5 and 1.5 mJ were obtained at the repetition rate of 200 Hz and 1 kHz, respectively. An optical efficiency was as high as η_o-o = 9.3% with an excellent beam quality of M ² < 1.1, which ensured that a cryogenic Yb:YAG TRAM had a high thermal strength. The following four pass power amplifier with a cryogenic Yb:YAG rod showed 140 mJ at 100 Hz. Both a high optical efficiency of η_o-o = 30% and a high slope efficiency of η_s = 44% showed that an efficient laser operation could be realized for a power amplification with both a high pulse energy and a high average power by using a cryogenic Yb:YAG.     

Preparation and characterization of transparent Nd:YAG ceramics

Transparent Nd:YAG ceramics were produced by solid.state reaction of high.purity (4N) nanometric oxides powders, i.e., Al₂O₃, Y₂O₃ and Nd₂O₃. After sintering, mean grain sizes of 2% Nd:YAG samples were about 20 μm and their transparency were a bit worse than that of 0.9% Nd:YAG single crystal. Two types of active elements: rods and slabs were fabricated and characterized in several diode pumping schemes. In end pumping configuration as a pump source 20.W fiber coupled laser diode operating in low duty cycle regime (1 ms pump duration/20 Hz) was deployed. In the best case, 3.7 W of output power for 18 W of absorbed pump power, M² < 1.4 were demonstrated for uncoated ceramics Nd:YAG rod of ϕ 4×3mm size in preliminary experiments. For the ceramics of two times lower Nd dopant level above 30% slope efficiency was achieved. In case of Nd:YAG ceramic slab side pumped by 600.W laser diode stack above 12 W was demonstrated with slope efficiency of 3.5%.     

Short pulse width UV laser at 355 nm based on pulse LD side-pumped ceramic Nd:YAG and BBO electro-optical Q-switched

355 nm UV laser was obtained with a pulse width of less than 5 ns and a peak power at megawatt level by adopting the 808 nm pulse laser diode (LD) side-pumped ceramic Nd:YAG and BBO crystal electrooptical Q-switched. The single-pulse energy was measured to be 24.3 mJ with 4.86 ns pulse width and 5.11 MW peak power at a repetition rate of 1Hz under a 120 A pump current. Using a volume of beam splitting mirrors, wavelength outputs at 1064, 532, and 355 nm pulse laser was obtained simultaneously with a respective average output power of 656.6, 357.1, and 260.5 mW, the beam quality factor M ₂ are (M _{x − 1064}² = 5.83, M _{y − 1064}² = 5.61), (M _{x − 532}² = 4.25, M _{y − 532}² = 4.08) and (M _{x − 355}² = 6.32, M _{y − 355}² = 6.15), corresponding to a conversion efficiency at 11% from 1064 to 355 nm.     

High peak power Nd:YAG laser pumped by 600-W diode laser stack

The Q-switched laser with triangle slab made of Nd:YAG crystal side pumped by 600-W quasi-cw diode laser stack has been designed. The multimode (M²≈2.6) output energy of about 42 mJ was demonstrated in free running mode for110-mJ pump energy. In Q-switch experiments, the KDDP Pockels cell was placed between the slab and rear mirror in plane-plane cavity with output coupler of 84% transmission. The energy of 8 mJ in 2.1-ns pulse duration was obtained for near TEM₀₀ output beam. For passive Q-switching by means of Cr:YAG crystal of 12.6% unsaturated transmission, the energy of 5.1 mJ in 2.5-ns pulse duration was obtained for output beam close to TEM₀₀ mode.     

3.8 W of cw blue light generated by intracavity frequency doubling of a 946-nm Nd:YAG laser with LBO

Efficient cw intracavity frequency doubling of a diode-end-pumped Nd:YAG laser operating on ⁴ F _3/2→⁴ I _9/2 transitions at 946 nm has been demonstrated. A symmetrical cavity with two composite laser rods was designed, which divides the pump power between the two composite laser rods, allowing for greater power scalability. A 30-mm-long LiB₃O₅ (LBO) crystal, cut for critical type I phase matching at 57 °C, was used for the intracavity frequency doubling of the laser. A maximum output power of 3.8 W in the blue spectral range at 473 nm has been achieved at 39 W of pump power. The beam quality M² value is 2.3 in both horizontal and vertical dimensions. PACS 42.55.Xi; 42.65.Ky     

Kilohertz high power extracavity KGW yellow raman lasers based on pulse LD side-pumped ceramic Nd: YAG

We report an efficient operation of a kilohertz nanosecond extracavity KGd(WO₄)₂ (KGW) crystal Raman yellow laser, which is pumped by a 532 nm lasers based on pulse laser diode (LD) side-pumped ceramic Nd: YAG, BBO electro-optical Q-switched and LBO crystal extracavity frequency doubling. With the 5 W, 10 ns and 1 kHz output power pumped at 532 nm, we obtained 2.58 W, 7.4 ns, 1 kHz second Stokes Raman laser output at 579.54 nm for 768 cm⁻¹ Raman shift of KGW crystal, corresponding to a conversion efficiency of 51.4%. By changing the KGW crystal orientation, we further obtained 3.18 W, 7.8 ns, 1 kHz Raman pulses at 588.33 nm for 901 cm⁻¹ Raman shift, corresponding to a conversion efficiency of 63.3%. The beam quality factors M² of 579.54 and 588.33 nm were (M _x−579.54² = 5.829, M _y−579.54² = 6.336) and (M _x−588.33² = 6.405, M _y−588.33² = 6.895), respectively.     

All solid-state continuous-wave Nd:YAG laser at 1319 and 659.5 nm under direct 885 nm pumping

The continuous-wave high efficiency laser emission of Nd:YAG at the fundamental wavelength of 1319 nm and its 659.5-nm second harmonic obtained by intracavity frequency doubling with an LBO nonlinear crystal is investigated under pumping by diode laser at 885 nm (on the ⁴ F _3/2 → ⁴ I _13/2 transition). An end-pumped Nd:YAG crystal yielded 9.1 W at 1319 nm of continuous-wave output power for 18.2 W of absorbed pump power. The slope efficiency with respect to the absorbed pump power is 0.55. Furthermore, 5.2 W 659.5 nm red light is acquired by frequency doubling, resulting in an optical-to-optical efficiency with respect to the absorbed pump power of 0.286. Comparative results obtained for the pump with diode laser at 808 nm (on the ⁴ F _5/2 → ⁴ I _13/2 transition) are given in order to prove the advantages of the 885 nm wavelength pumping.     

120 W high repetition rate Nd:YVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> MOPA laser with a Nd:YAG cavity-dumped seed laser

A master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) system in which the output from an end-pumped Nd:YAG oscillator cavity dumped at 500 kHz is scaled up by a four-stage Nd:YVO₄ amplifier is reported. Decrease in extraction efficiency of the amplifier chain with crystals different from that in the oscillator was analyzed. With the 5.4 W seed output, 118 W of power was extracted from the amplifier chain at the pump power of 345 W, with an extraction efficiency of 34.2% and an overall optical–optical efficiency of 30.9% for the MOPA system. The beam quality factors were measured as M _x ²=1.45 and M _y ²=1.59 in two orthogonal directions, respectively.     

High efficiency TEM00 mode, diode-pumped, conduction-cooled, Nd:YAG zig-zag slab laser

We report a compact, conduction-cooled, highly efficient, continuous wave (CW) Nd:YAG slab laser in diode-side-pumped geometry. To achieve high efficiency, a novel laser head for Nd:YAG slab has been developed. For an absorbed pump power of 27.6 W, maximum output power of 10.4 W in multimode and 8.2 W in near-diffraction-limited beam quality has been obtained. Slope and optical-to-optical conversion efficiencies are 45.3% and 37.7% in multimode with beam quality factors (M²) in x and y directions equal to 32 and 8, respectively. TEM₀₀ mode operation was achieved in a hybrid resonator with slope and optical-to-optical conversion efficiencies of 43.2% and 29.7%, respectively. Beam quality factors in x and y directions are ?1.5 and ?1.6 for the whole output power range. The laser radiation was linearly polarized and polarization contrast ratios are >1200:1 in the multimode and 1800:1 in the TEM₀₀ mode operation. In passive Q-switching with Cr⁴⁺:YAG crystal of 68% initial transmission, 18 ns pulsewidth has been achieved with an average power of 2 W at a repetition rate of 16 kHz.     

High power single-longitudinal-mode Nd:YAG CW laser using reflective volume Bragg grating as output coupler

The single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) laser system has been demonstrated using reflective volume Bragg grating (RVBG) as output coupler based on short oscillator. The laser is laser diode (LD) side pumped and the oscillator is composed of one surface of Nd:YAG and RVBG. The RVBG has good angle and wavelength selectivity in SLM laser system. The maximum SLM output power is 622.15 mW. The average opticsoptics efficiency is 17.2% and slope efficiency is 25.6%. The M ² factor is smaller than 1.3.     

High-power diode-pumped Tm:YLF slab laser

A 2% Tm³⁺-doped LiYF₄(Tm:YLF) slab is double-end-pumped by two laser diode stacks. The pumped volume has a rectangular cross section. The Tm:YLF laser produced 148 W of continuos-wave output at 1912 nm in a beam with M _x ²≈199 and M _y ²≈1.7 for 554 W of incident pump power. The slope efficiency with respect to the incident pump power was 32.6%, and the optical-to-optical efficiency was 26.7%.     

High efficiency KTiOAsO4 optical parametric oscillator within a diode-side-pumped two-rod Nd:YAG laser

A high efficiency KTiOAsO₄(KTA) intracavity optical parametric oscillator (IOPO) is demonstrated within a diode-side-pumped acousto-optically (AO) Q-switched two-rod Nd:YAG laser. With a 25-mm-long X-cut KTA crystal, efficient parametric conversions to signal (1.54 μm) and idler (3.47 μm) waves are realized. The highest output power of 15.8 W including 12.7 W signal and 3.1 W idler power is obtained at a repetition rate of 7.5 kHz and a pump power of 208 W, corresponding to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of up to 7.6%. The signal pulse duration is 32 ns with a peak power of 53 kW. At a repetition rate of 12.5 kHz and the pump power of 208 W, the highest idler power of 3.4 W is obtained with a peak power of 14 kW and a pulse duration of 19 ns. And the beam quality factors (M ²) of the signal and idler waves are determined to be around 2 and 20, respectively.     

1 mJ, 500 kHz Nd:YAG/Nd:YVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> MOPA laser with a Nd:YAG cavity-dumping seed laser

We report a high-repetition-rate, high-pulse-energy master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) laser system, in which the seed laser from the Nd:YAG rod-based oscillator cavity dumped at 500 kHz, was scaled up consecutively by a four-stage Nd:YVO₄ preamplifier and a two-stage Nd:YAG zigzag slab main amplifier. The laser pulsed output with the average power of 510 W was achieved, with the efficiency extraction of 26.6% at the main amplifier stage and the single-pulse energy of 1.02 mJ.     

High-efficiency 17 W, 80 MHz repetition rate,passively mode-locked TEM<Subscript>00</Subscript> Nd:YAG oscillator pumped at 885 nm

We report on a passively mode-locked TEM₀₀ Nd:YAG oscillator with the beam quality at M ² = 1.1 by a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror under 885 nm laser diode direct pumping for the first time. A maximum average output power of 17 W at a repetition rate of 80 MHz with 39 ps pulse width was obtained under the absorbed pump power of 38 W, corresponding to an optical-optical efficiency of 44% and the slope efficiency of 69%, respectively.     

Neodymium concentration dependence of 0.94-, 1.06- and 1.34-μm laser emission and of heating effects under 809- and 885-nm diode laser pumping of Nd:YAG

Laser emission in the 0.94-, 1.06- and 1.34-micron ranges in diluted and concentrated Nd:YAG crystals longitudinally pumped by a 885-nm diode laser on the ⁴ I _9/2→⁴ F _3/2 transition is investigated. Continuous-wave operation at watt level in all these wavelength ranges is demonstrated with a 1.0-at. % Nd:YAG crystal; however, the laser performance is impeded by the low pump absorption efficiency. Improved output power and overall efficiency were obtained with a highly doped 2.5-at. % Nd:YAG crystal: 5.5 W at 1.06 μm and 3.8 W at 1.34 μm with 0.38 and 0.26 efficiencies, respectively. Comparative results with traditional pumping at 809 nm into the highly absorbing ⁴ F _5/2 level are presented, showing the advantage of the direct ⁴ F _3/2 pumping. The influence of the lasing wavelength and of the Nd concentration on the thermal effects induced by the optical pumping in the laser material is discussed. A clear relation between the heat generated in the Nd:YAG crystals in lasing and non-lasing regimes, a function of the Nd doping, is demonstrated. PACS 42.55.Rz; 42.60.By; 42.60.Da     

Rotating-disk diode-pumped continuous-wave Nd:YAG laser

Continuous-Wave (CW) diode-laser-pumped experiments using rotating Nd: YAG disk(s) have been performed in the input-power range of 1–6 W and rotation-speed range of 0–25 Hz. With a single Nd: YAG disk in the laser cavity, about 1.56 W of output power at 1.06 µm due to the Nd³⁺ (⁴ F _3/2–⁴ I _11/2) transition at an absorbed input power of 4.2 W has been observed, leading to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of over 37% and slope efficiency of 52% using 7.5% transmission output coupler. The laser output power has been observed to decrease by either increasing the number of Nd:YAG disks in the cavity or increasing the rotation speed of the disk(s).     

Single-frequency operation of a laser diode side-pumped Q-switched Tm:YAG laser using seeding injection technique

A laser diode (LD) side-pumped 2 μm single-frequency Q-switched Tm:YAG laser was demonstrated. The laser was injection seeded by a CW single frequency Tm:YAG laser with a twisted-mode cavity. The maximum single-frequency pulse energy was 16.3 mJ, with a pulse width of 570 ns and a pulse repetition rate of 10 Hz. The linewidth of the 2 μm single-frequency Q-switched laser was 0.68 MHz, measured by using the optical heterodyne technique. The M ² of the laser beam was measured to be 1.09 and 1.03 for x direction and y direction, respectively.     

Propagation parameters of the beam extracted from a diode pumped Nd:YAG ceramic slab laser with a hybrid stable–unstable resonator

We analyze the propagation properties of the beam extracted from a diode pumped ceramic Nd:YAG slab laser adopting a hybrid stable–unstable resonator. Such a resonator produces a beam characterized by an Hermite–Gauss mixture-like distribution in one transverse direction and a hard-edge diffracted distribution on the other transverse direction. The beam propagation parameters M_x² and M_y² are measured for different values of the diodes driving current. We obtain a beam parameter product smaller than 3 mm mrad in both transverse directions and in the whole range of powers, up to an extraction of 220 W in a QCW regime.     

A compact,widely tunable intracavity PPLN optical parameter oscillator driven by an Nd:YAG/Cr:YAG composite crystal laser

Based on periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN), a mini intracavity optical parameter oscillator (IOPO) driven by an diode-end-pumped composite Nd³⁺:YAG/Cr⁴⁺:YAG laser was demonstrated. The PPLN wafer has 20 domain reversal periods from 27.8 to 31.6 μm with a step of 0.2 μm between the neighbor periods. The output signal laser of OPO can be widely tunable in the range of 1402–1676 nm by changing the period at a certain temperature of 50°C. Under the diode pump power of 14 W, the maximum average output power of 600 mW at 1534 nm with pulse width of 2.0 ns and repetition rate of 16 kHz was obtained, corresponding to a peak power of 18.7 kW and a single pulse energy of 37.5 μJ, respectively.