The study of 1.06 μm laser characteristics of Nd:KGd(WO4)2 crystal

This paper presents laser characteristics of neodymium-doped potassium gadolinium tungstate (KGW) crystals grown in our institute. The maximum laser output was 358.4 mJ a pulse at wavelength 1.067 μm when a Nd³⁺:KGW rod with dimensions of 3.4 mm×24 mm was pumped by a single xenon flashlamp. The overall and slope efficiencies are 1.7% and 3.3%, respectively. A laser output of 204 mW with an optical to optical efficiency of 60% has been obtained when the KGW:Nd³⁺ crystal with dimensions of 5 mm×5 mm×5 mm was pumped by a sapphire laser.     

The improvement of output characteristics on Tm3+-doped all-fibre laser operating at 1908 nm

We demonstrate a comparative analysis of directly diode-pumped Tm³⁺-doped all-fibre laser operating at 1908 nm with different structure at fibre end facets. The feedback arising from parasitic oscillations and amplified spontaneous emission can be suppressed by coating an anti-reflection on the forward end facet and cleaving an angle on the backward end facet. 44.1 W laser power on forward end at the pumped power of 120 W was achieved. The forward laser slope efficiency was 39.3%, corresponding to the backward laser slope efficiency of 3.0%. The beam quality factor of M² was 1.4.     

Development of a flashlamp-pumped Cr:LiSAF laser operating at 30 Hz

Cr3+:LiSrAlF6 crystals are an interesting laser medium because of their spectroscopic characteristics: They present a broad emission band in the near infrared and can be pumped either by a flashlamp or by diodes. Up to now, their limitation has been mostly due to their poor thermal properties that limit the laser performance either in the repetition rate in a pulsed system or output power in cw systems. We have designed and constructed a flashlamp-pumped laser using a standard rod pumping cavity that avoids most of the heat generated in the pumping process and allows operation at a fairly high repetition rate of 30 Hz with a high average power of 20 W in a conservative operation mode.     

Improvement in continuous-wave laser performance of disordered Yb:CNGG crystal

We report on a significant improvement in cw laser performance of the disordered Yb:CNGG crystal. Very efficient cw laser operation is demonstrated at room temperature with a 3.5 mm thick crystal end pumped by a diode laser, generating an output power of 5.15 W with an optical-to-optical efficiency of 46%, whereas the slope efficiency amounts to 80%.     

Intracavity second-harmonic generation at 320 nm of an actively Q-switched Pr:LiYF4 laser

We demonstrate pulse laser operation of a Pr:LiYF(4) laser pumped by InGaN laser diodes (444 nm) using an acousto-optic modulator. We obtained a maximum laser peak power of 167 W (4 μJ/pulse) with a pulse width of 24 ns at an 11 kHz repetition rate for a 63 nm wavelength. Employing an 8 mm long lithium triborate nonlinear crystal in the laser cavity, we obtained a maximum peak power of 55 W (2.7 μJ/pulse) at 320 nm, which corresponds to a conversion efficiency of 69% with respect to the fundamental laser energy. The UV laser pulse width was 36 ns.     

Simultaneous multiple-wavelength cw lasing in laser-diode-pumped composite rods of Nd:YAG and Nd:YLF

Simultaneous multiple-wavelength cw laser operations were achieved in two types of composite laser rod composed of Nd(3+):YAG and Nd(3+):YLF crystals, which were laser diode (LD) pumped within a single virtual-point-source cavity. As much as 30 W of total output at 1064- and 1047-nm wavelengths was obtained under 150-W LD input power, with approximately 25% from the 1047-nm wavelength. Different bonding methods were compared, showing that the use of an optical adhesive is effective and presents no deterioration at low and middle power levels. Simultaneous multiple-wavelength operation at 1064- and 1053-nm wavelengths was also studied.     

Efficient and stable operation of a high-brightness cw 500-W Nd:YAG rod laser

Enhanced efficiency and stabilized beam-power generation were proved for a high-brightness cw-based 500-W Nd:YAG rod laser by compensation of the thermally induced bifocusing of the Nd:YAG rod. Maximum laser power of 500 W cw was obtained at lamp input power of 18.4 kW, with beam quality M(2) = 19 orωθ (radius x, the half-angle of divergence) = 6.4 mm mrad and power fluctuation of less than 1%.     

Operation of an optical in-well-pumped vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser

We report the operation of an optical in-well-pumped vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser. The laser delivers 1 W at 855 nm and is pumped with a cost-effective fiber-coupled laser diode emitting at 806 nm. The laser modal gain is examined and ways of optimizing the system are investigated and discussed.     

Efficient laser operation of diode-pumped Nd:KGd(WO4)2 crystal at 1.067 µm

The spectral properties and laser performance of a Nd:KGd(WO(4))(2) (Nd:KGW) rod pumped by a laser diode have been studied. The Nd:KGW can be doped with a much higher Nd3(+) concentration and has a wider absorption linewidth around 808 nm compared with Nd:YAG. At low repetition rates, the Nd:KGW exhibited good lasing properties with a lower threshold. The maximum optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of the diode laser pumped Nd:KGW laser at 1.067 μm has been determined to be 34.3% with a slope efficiency of 43.1%.     

Efficient diode side-pumping configuration of a Nd:YAG rod laser with a diffusive cavity

We propose an efficient, simple, and scalable diode side-pumping configuration of a solid-state rod laser. The rod is excited in a diffusive cavity and diode powers are transferred by a thin plate into the cavity. In multitransverse-mode cw operation, 40 W of laser power was generated with an optical-to-optical slope efficiency of 52.2% at a diode output power of 135.1 W and an electrical input power of 327.3 W into the diodes. These values correspond to an optical-to-optical total efficiency of 29.6% and an electrical-to-optical total efficiency of 12.2%. The electrical-to-optical slope efficiency was 30.3%.     

Analysis and Performance of 2·7 μm Er3+ Fibre Laser Amplifiers and Oscillators

Abstract

A mathematical model is described which estimates the performance of erbium doped fibre lasers and amplifiers at 1·5 μm or at 2·7 μm. The model has shown good agreement with experimental results and has been used to optimize the configuration of new systems. Continuous wave laser action has been demonstrated at λ = 2·7 μm in an Er³⁺ doped multi-mode fluorozirconate fibre laser, pumped by an 800 nm laser diode.     

Neodymium:YAG 30-W cw Laser Side Pumped by Three Diode Laser Bars

A theoretical calculation of pump power deposition in a direct water-cooled Nd:YAG laser rod, side pumped by three diode laser bars is presented. The pumping cavity design provides a nearly uniform pump profile. More than 30-W cw output power with optical-to-optical efficiencies of more than 30% are obtained.     

Efficient pulsed 946-nm laser emission from Nd:YAG pumped by a titanium-doped sapphire laser

Efficient pulsed room-temperature laser emission at 946 nm is obtained from a Nd:YAG rod pumped by a Ti-doped sapphire laser in the free-running mode. Three bonded YAG rods of 3-mm diameter with different Nd concentrations and active lengths were tested. A maximum output energy of 83.5 mJ at 3 Hz was obtained with a slope efficiency of 32.3% in an end-pumping configuration.     

Microchip lasers and their applications in optical microsystems

The microchip lasers are the most compact diode pumped solid state lasers. They are fabricated using collective mass production processes, at low cost. Several hundreds of microchip lasers can be fabricated on one single thin wafer of a laser material. The microchip laser is pumped with a standard GaAlAs or GaInAs diode laser, directly or through a multimode fibre. It is a kind of optical transformer which transforms a poor quality laser diode beam to a diffraction limited TEM00 and single frequency laser beam. Moreover, by Q-switching, very short pulses (∼0.4–2 ns) with very high peak power (0.5–50 kW) can be obtained. Most of the well known laser materials can be used for emissions near 1, 1.3, 1.5 and 2. Visible and UV emissions are obtained using harmonic generations in non-linear crystals. Microchip lasers have many different industrial applications in large markets such as: automotive, laser marking, environmental and medical applications, public works, telecommunications. They should open the domain of solid state lasers to high volume and low cost markets.     

Highly efficient continuous-wave operation of a Nd:YAG rod laser that is side pumped by p-polarized diode laser bars

We report on the performance of highly efficient, high-power continuous-wave (CW) Nd:YAG lasers that are side pumped by p-polarized diode laser beams. In this configuration pump light is directly coupled into the Nd:YAG rod through a threefold symmetric gold-coated flow tube. The polarization direction of our pump diode bars is perpendicular to the rod's axis (p-polarized). In a closed coupled resonator, a maximum output power of 195 W in multimode operation is obtained for a pump power of 423 W, which corresponds to an optical-to-optical efficiency of 46% and an electrical-to-optical efficiency of 23%. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the highest electrical-to-optical efficiency reported for a CW diode side-pumped Nd:YAG laser. By the pump-power leakage analysis method, we measured the pumping efficiency to be approximately 94%. The high efficiency of the system can be attributed to wing pumping, which results in uniform pump-light distribution and better pumping efficiency because of the use of p-polarized pump beams.     

Kilohertz pulse repetition frequency slab Ti:sapphire lasers with high average power (10 W)

High-average-power broadband 780-nm slab Ti:sapphire lasers, pumped by a kilohertz pulse repetition frequency copper vapor laser (CVL), were demonstrated. These lasers are designed for damage-free power scaling when pumped by CVL's configured for maximum output power (of order 100 W) but with poor beam quality (M(2) ~ 300). A simple Brewster-angled slab laser side pumped by a CVL produced 10-W average power (1.25-mJ pulses at 8 kHz) with 4.2-ns FWHM pulse duration at an absolute efficiency of 15% (68-W pump power). Thermal lensing in the Brewster slab laser resulted in multitransverse mode output, and pump absorption was limited to 72% by the maximum doping level for commercially available Ti:sapphire (0.25%). A slab laser with a multiply folded zigzag path was therefore designed and implemented that produced high-beam-quality (TEM(00)-mode) output when operated with cryogenic cooling and provided a longer absorption path for the pump. Excessive scattering of the Ti:sapphire beam at the crystal surfaces limited the efficiency of operation for the zigzag laser, but fluorescence diagnostic techniques, gain measurement, and modeling suggest that efficient power extraction (>15 W TEM(00), >23% efficiency) from this laser would be possible for crystals with an optical quality surface polish.     

Passive Q Switching of a Diode-Pumped 946-nm Nd:YAG Laser with 1.6-W Average Output Power

As much as 1.6-W average output power was emitted in a simple setup from a diffusion-bonded Nd:YAG rod with 70-100-ns Q-switched pulses at 946 nm and repetition frequencies between 15 and 45 kHz at 22-W incident diode-pump power. A Cr(4+):YAG crystal with a bleachable loss of approximately 2.5% and a length of 0.5 mm was used as a saturable absorber. The extraction efficiency was 47% in comparison with the continuous-wave laser output power of 3.37 W in the free-running regime.     

Experimental Evaluation of a Fibre Raman Oscillator Having Fibre Grating Reflectors

Abstract

We report on the construction and characterization of a novel fibre Raman oscillator which used fibre grating reflectors rather than discrete mirrors to form the Raman resonator. This was synchronously pumped by a c.w. mode-locked Nd : YAG laser operating at 1·06 µm. Spectral and temporal characteristics of such oscillators formed by two gratings and by one grating and a conventional mirror are presented.     

Efficient laser operation of an Yb:S-FAP crystal at 985 nm

We have obtained three-level cw laser operation at 985 nm with a Yb-doped S-FAP bulk crystal pumped by a Ti:sapphire laser. An output power of 250 mW for an incident pump power of 1.45 W has been achieved, which is the highest cw output power ever obtained, to our knowledge, at this wavelength with a Yb-doped crystal. The experimental results are in good agreement with the numerical model that we have developed.     

Efficient 946-nm Laser Operation of a Composite Nd:YAG Rod With Undoped Ends

We present comparative studies on laser performance of diode end-pumped, composite Nd:YAG rods with undoped ends at 946 nm. Efficient heat removal in a composite rod can reduce the peak of rise in temperature in the active segment to 61% by theoretical calculation. The maximum, continuous-wave output power of 1.5 W, which is three times higher than a conventional noncomposite rod, was obtained at an absorbed pump power of 8 W because of the 55 deg reduction in temperature rise that was estimated experimentally. The performance and characteristics of composite rods in quasi-three-level laser operation are analyzed and discussed in detail, taking into account the reduction in reabsorption loss, which is strongly temperature dependent.