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A high-efficiency high-power diode-side-pumped quasi-continuous wave (QCW) Nd:YAG ceramic slab laser using zigzag optical path was demonstrated. With an integrating sphere technique, the scattering and absorption coefficient of the ceramic slab were measured to be 0.0024 and 0.0016 cm at 1,064 nm, respectively. Under a pump power of 6.69 kW, an average output power of 2.44 kW at 1,064 nm with a repetition rate of 400 Hz was achieved, corresponding to an optical-to-optical efficiency of 36.5 %. As far as we know, this is the highest conversion efficiency reported for QCW side-pumped single slab Nd:YAG ceramic laser. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scattering is the critical loss mechanism in transparent laser ceramic materials. We present a method to determine the scattering coefficient and absorption coefficient of laser material based on an integrating sphere technique. Here, the neodymium ceramic Nd:YAG samples with Nd ions doping concentration of 1.0 at% are used. For a comparison, a Nd:YAG single crystal with identical concentration is also employed. The measured scattering coefficient and absorption coefficient at 1064 nm for high quality ceramic Nd:YAG were 0.004 cm and 0.001 cm, which were very close to that of single crystal. The optical uniformity and wave-front distortion properties were also investigated by means of a Hartmann wavefront analyzer. The following laser performance tests demonstrate a maximum output power of 425 W in a short plano-plano configuration for the high quality Nd:YAG ceramic, which was nearly same with that of single crystal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate a high-power diode side-pumped Nd:YAG laser on the low gain three lines near 1.1 μm. By tuning the tilting angle of a solid etalon in the cavity, the laser can be selectively operated at 1112, 1116 and 1123 nm either in continuous-wave (CW) mode or in actively Q-switched (QS) mode, respectively. The highest average CW output powers were 75, 47 and 71 W at 1112, 1116 and 1123 nm, respectively. The transmittances of the etalon were calculated to analyze the performance of the laser at the three lines. Furthermore, a computational model of a three-wavelength laser based on rate equations was employed to examine the line selectivity of the three lines near 1.1 μm at different tilting angles of the etalon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate for the first time a diode-side-pumped quasi-continuous-wave (QCW) operation of a 1123 nm Nd:YAG ceramic laser. The single 1123 nm wavelength is acquired through precise coating. With a pump power of 1000 W, an output power of 247 W is obtained, corresponding to an optical-optical conversion efficiency of 24.7%. At the maximal output power, the pulse repetition rate and pulse width are measured to be 1.1 kHz and 180 μs, respectively. The numerical simulations for wavelength selectivity from 1112, 1116 and 1123 nm are discussed in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

water-cooled 785 nm diode-side-pumped high-power CW Tm:YAG laser system at 2 μm is reported. 200 W output power is achieved with cooling water running at 8°C. As far as we know, this is the highest output power for a diode-pumped all solid-state 2 μm Tm:YAG laser. The output corresponds to optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 11.2%, with a slope efficiency of about 22.8%. To make the system structure simple, only deionized water is used as the coolant instead of alcohol- or glycol-water mixture or the liquid nitrogen in the reported high-power Tm rod laser experiments, which were performed at low temperature near the freezing point of water, or even below. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a high-power, narrow linewidth and tunable quasi-continuous-wave (QCW) yellow laser system at 589.159 nm. The system is of a design employing single-pass sum-frequency generation (SFG) in a LBO crystal by mixing the 1064 nm with 1319 nm lines from a two diode-side-pumped Nd:YAG master oscillator-power amplifier (MOPA) laser system. With the pump power of 35 W at 1064 nm and 25 W at 1319 nm, a 7.5 W QCW output of the SFG yellow laser at 589.159 nm, which is the vacuum wavelength of a general sodium D line, is obtained with a linewidth less than 0.7 GHz and a beam-quality factor M=1.2. The wavelength of the laser can be precisely step-tuned from 589.148 to 589.167 nm with an increment of 0.13 pm by means of a temperature-controlled etalon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have presented theoretical and experimental investigations of nanosecond (ns) deep-ultraviolet (DUV) 177.3 nm radiation by means of second harmonic generation (SHG) from a frequency-tripled Nd:YAG laser (355 nm, 49 ns and 10 kHz) in KBe2BO3F2 (KBBF) nonlinear crystal for the first time. A DUV KBBF-SHG numerical model, accounting for linear absorption, pump depletion, beam spatial birefringent walk-off and diffraction, is performed in the Gaussian approximation of spatial and temporal profiles. In the experiment, a maximum average output power of 14.1 mW at 177.3 nm was obtained. The dependence of 177.3 nm output power on the 355 nm pump power was simulated. The calculated results are in good agreement with the measured data. We used the model further to investigate the optical conversion efficiency, pulse width, beam spatial intensity profile and beam quality factor of the generated 177.3 nm light, in particular the effect of beam birefringent walk-off. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have developed a widely tunable deep-ultraviolet (DUV) laser in the wavelength range from 175 to 210 nm by the fourth harmonic generation of Ti:Sapphire laser. The fourth harmonic generation is performed by direct second-harmonic generation (SHG) of a frequency doubled Ti:Sapphire laser with KBBF crystal. The highest output power is 2.23 mW at 193 nm, and the power of the DUV laser is more than 1 mW from 182 nm to 210 nm. To our knowledge, it is the first demonstration of milliwatt-level widely tunable DUV all-solid-state laser below 200 nm by direct SHG technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]