Experimental study of a high power and high efficiency CW diode-side-pumped Nd:YAG laser

This paper reports on the characterization of a diode-side-pumped CW Nd:YAG laser. A side-pumped configuration with 9 laser diodes is used for the laser. Pump light is directly coupled into the Nd:YAG rod without focusing lenses and the pump light distribution in the Nd:YAG rod was calculated. A maximum output power of 150 W in multimode operation is obtained for a pumping power of 400 W. The optical–optical efficiency is 37%. Output power of the laser under different output couplers, resonator lengths and temperatures of the cooling water have been studied.