High-energy, nanosecond orange laser at 604 nm based on Pr:YLF crystal at room temperature

We proposed a compact experimental scheme for a low repetition rate, high-energy, nanosecond laser at 604 nm based on Pr: YLF crystal at room temperature. The thermal effect of Pr: YLF crystal was simulated, which demonstrated that high energy 604 nm laser line at room temperature can be generated with appropriate parameters such as crystal and the laser output coupling. Then a stable 604 nm orange laser pumped by a pulsed 444 nm optical parametric oscillator was developed experimentally. A high pulse energy of 63 μJ with 30 ns pulse duration at a repetition rate of 10 Hz was obtained. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of such a high-energy 604 nm laser using a gain switched pump source at room temperature.