Defining the optimal gradient doped Yb^(3+):YAG disk for room and low temperature diode pumped solid-state laser operations

We propose a general methodology to define the optimum doping ion volume distribution required for an efficient solid-state laser amplifier. This approach is illustrated in the context of two experimental diode pumped Yb:YAG amplifiers operating at 300 and 160 K. Processing of such tailored gain media is now possible through horizontal direct crystallization.

Diode Pumped Monolithic Unidirectional Nonplanar Single-Frequency Ring Laser

Diode pumped monolithic nonplanar ring laser has been developed, yielding single frequency laser and has the advantages of compactness, reliability and high efficiency. Its principles are given in detail and a monolithic nonplanar ring laser is designed. As a result, a laser of hundreds milliwatts cw single frequency output was built up, placed in a magnetic field and pumped by LD. The optical conversion efficiency was more than 15% and the slope efficiency more than 30%. The laser beam had a good quality, with M 2 about 1 2.

Experimental Study of Nd^(3+):KGd(WO_(4))_(2) Laser Pumped by Laser Diode

This paper presents the cw output characteristics of Nd^(3+):KGd(WO_(4))_(2)(KGW)laser crystal with different NcP+concentration grown in our laboratory.The laser output at 1.067 μm of KGW crystal(3×3×6 mm)was obtained to be 68.9 mW and the slope efficiency reached 28.8%when pumped by laser diode of power 305 mW at 807 nm.

Self-Mixing Interference Effects in LD Pumped Multi-Mode Solid-State Laser

Based on the effective structure of the self-mixing interference effects,a general model for the self-mixing interference effects in the LD pumped solid-state laser has been established for the first time.The numerical simulation of the self-mixing interference signal has been done,the results show that when the external cavity length is integral times of 1/2,1/3,2/3,1/4,3/4 of the effective cavity length,the intensity of the self-mixing interference signals reach maximum in value.While that of single mode laser is integral times of half of the effective cavity length,the measuring precision of displacement of single mode laser is λ/2.A conclusion can be drawn from the above results that the measuring precision of displacement of multi-mode laser is higher than that of single mode laser.

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS ON A GaAlAs LASER DIODE OPTICALLY PUMPED CESIUM BEAM

Almost all the atoms in the hyperfine sublevel F=4,m_(F)=0("clock level")of cesium ground state have been pumped out by using a laser diode tuned on the Cs-D2 line;and 15.2%population difference(|δoo|)which is more than two times better than what the traditional magnetical selecting state method could provide is found.This experimental result can be applied into building an optically pumped Cs beam frequency standard and better performance will be expected.

Generation of 54 Fs Laser Pulses from a Diode Pumped Kerr-Lens Mode-Locked Yb:LSO Laser

A diode pumped Kerr-lens mode-locked femtosecond Yb：LSO laser is experimentally demonstrated for the first time. The 54fs laser pulses at central wavelength of 1052nm with a bandwidth of 22.5nm are obtained at the repetition rate of 113 MHz. To the best of our knowledge, this is the shortest pulse duration ever produced from the Yb-doped orthosilicates lasers family.

Efficient and high-power laser-diode single-end-pumped Nd：YVO4 continuous wave laser at 1342nm

A compact, efficient and high-power laser diode （LD） single-end-pumped Nd：YVO4 laser with continuous-wave emission at 1342 nm is reported. With a single crystal single-end-pumped by fibre-coupled LD array, an output power of 7.36W is obtained from the laser cavity of concave-convex shape, corresponding to an optical-to-optical efficiency of 32.8%. The laser is operated in TEM00 mode with small rms amplitude noise of 0.3%. The influences of the Nd concentration, transmissivity of the output mirror and the cavity length on the output power have been studied experimentally.

First-Stokes Wavelengths at 1175.8 and 1177.1 nm Generated in a Diode End-Pumped Nd:YVO_4/LuVO_4 Raman Laser

A diode end-pumped acousto-optic Q-switched Nd:YVO_4/LuVO_4 Raman laser is demonstrated. Both YVO_4 and LuVO_4 can work as Raman gain, and slightly different active vibration modes of both crystals can result in different first-Stokes wavelengths. The output characteristic as the Raman competition between YVO_4 and LuVO_4 crystals for the laser systems with both shared cavity and coupled cavity is experimentally investigated.For the shared cavity, simultaneous Raman conversion in both YVO_4 and LuVO_4 crystals is achieved with dualwavelength emission at 1175.8 and 1177.1 nm. The maximum output power of 1.03 W and the conversion efficiency of 10.3% are obtained. The 0.84 W single first Stokes wavelength at 1177.1 nm with LuVO_4 Raman conversion is achieved with the coupled cavity. The results show that the coupled cavity with short Raman cavity can obtain a narrow pulse width. The separated laser crystal and Raman gain media with different vanadates in shared cavity have advantages in achieving dual-wavelength lasers with small frequency intervals.

Analytical modelling of end thermal coupling in a solid-state laser longitudinally bonded by a vertical-cavity top-emitting laser diode

The intrinsic features involving a circularly symmetric beam profile with low divergence, planar geometry as well as the increasingly enhanced power of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers （VCSELs） have made the VCSEL a promising pump source in direct end bonding to a solid-state laser medium to form the minimized, on-wafer integrated laser system. This scheme will generate a surface contact pump configuration and thus additional end thermal coupling to the laser medium through the joint interface of both materials, apart from pump beam heating. This paper analytically models temperature distributions in both VCSEL and the laser medium from the end thermal coupling regarding surface contact pump configuration using a top-emitting VCSEL as the pump source for the first time. The analytical solutions are derived by introducing relative temperature and mean temperature expressions. The results show that the end contact heating by the VCSEL could lead to considerable temperature variations associated with thermal phase shift and thermal lensing in the laser medium. However, if the central temperature of the interface is increased by less than 20 K, the end contact heating does not have a significant thermal influence on the laser medium. In this case, the thermal effect should be dominated by pump beam heating. This work provides useful analytical results for further analysis of hybrid thermal effects on those lasers pumped by a direct VCSEL bond.

Simulation of Diode-Pumped Q-Switched Nd:YAG Laser Generating Eye-Safe Signal in IOPO Environment

Numerical simulation of diode-pumped Q-switched Nd:YAG laser leading to the generation of eye-safe signal in singly resonant Intracavity Optical Parametric Oscillator (IOPO) is presented. Starting from rate equations, the time dependent laser equations have been solved numerically, whereas the space-dependent OPO equations analytically. Our results show that 1.4 J diode laser (810 nm) pulse with 200 msec width, delivers 30 mJ Nd:YAG laser (1064 nm) pulse with 5 n-second width. This Nd:YAG laser further generates 9 mJ eye safe signal (1570 nm) pulse with 2.5 n-second width.

Diode-pumped laser performance of Tm:Sc2SiO5 crystal at 1971 nm

The 4-at.% Tm：Sc_2SiO_5 （Tm：SSO） crystal is successfully obtained by the Czochralski method. The optical properties and thermal conductivity of the crystal are investigated. The broad continuous wave（CW） laser output of（100）-cut Tm：SSO with the dimensions of 3 mm×3 mm×3 mm under laser diode（LD）-pumping is realized. The full width at half maximum（FWHM） of the laser emitting reaches up to 21 nm. The laser threshold of Tm：SSO is measured to be 0.43 W. Efficient diode-pumped CW laser performance of Tm：SSO is demonstrated with a slope efficiency of 25.9% and maximum output power of 934 mW.

Design and performance of a composite Tm:YAG laser pumped by VBG-stabilized narrow-band laser diode

A 2-μm composite Tm：YAG laser pumped with a narrow-band laser diode was presented. The temperature distribution and thermal lens in the Tm：YAG were numerically simulated by a finite element method and the results were used to design the special cavity, in order to achieve a high efficiency and stable output. With a 25-W incident pump power, we obtained a maximum output power of 11 W at 2018.5 nm, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 51.3% and an optical-to-optical efficiency of 44.5%, respectively. The beam quality was measured to be M_x^2= 1.8 and M_y^2= 1.6.

Diode-pumped Kerr-lens mode-locked Ti: sapphire laser with broad wavelength tunability

We report a direct blue-diode-pumped wavelength tunable Kerr-lens mode-locked Ti: sapphire laser.Central wavelength tunability as broad as 89 nm(736-825 nm) is achieved by adjusting the insertion of the prism.Pulses as short as 17 fs are generated at a central wavelength of 736 nm with an average output power of 31 mW.The maximum output power is 46.8 mW at a central wavelength of 797 nm with a pulse duration of 46 fs.

High-power and high optical conversion efficiency diode-end-pumped laser with multi-segmented Nd：YAG/Nd：YVO-4

A novel flat-flat resonator consisting of two crystals（Nd：YAG ＋ Nd：YVO4） is established for power scaling in a diode-end-pumped solid-state laser. We systematically compare laser characteristics between multi-segmented（Nd：YAG ＋ Nd：YVO4） and conventional composite（Nd：YAG ＋ Nd：YAG） crystals to demonstrate the feasibility of spectral line matching for output power scale-up in end-pumped lasers. A maximum continuous-wave output power of 79.2 W is reported at 1064 nm, with Mx2= 4.82, My2= 5.48, and a pumping power of 136 W in the multi-segmented crystals（Nd：YAG ＋ Nd：YVO4）. Compared to conventional composite crystals（Nd：YAG ＋ Nd：YAG）, the optical-optical conversion efficiency of multi-segmented crystals（Nd：YAG ＋ Nd：YVO4） from 808 nm to 1064 nm is enhanced from 30% to 58.8%,while the laser output sensitivity as affected by the diode-laser temperature is reduced from 55% to 9%.

Compact,efficient diode-end-pumped Nd:GdVO_4 slab continuous-wave 912-nm laser

A fiber-coupled laser-diode （LD） end-pumped Nd：GdVO4 slab continuous-wave （CW） 912-nm laser and an LD bar end-pumped Nd：GdVO4 slab CW 912-nm laser are both demonstrated in this paper. Using the fiber-coupled LD of end-pumped type, a highest CW 912-nm laser output power of 10.17 W is obtained with a high optical to-optical conversion efficiency of 24.6% and a slope efficiency of 34.5%. The measured M2 factors of beam quality in x and y directions are 5.3 and 5.1, respectively. Besides, an LD bar of end-pumped type is used to realize CW 912-nm laser output, which has the advantages of compactness and low cost. When the pump power is 38.8 W, the output power is 8.87 W and the measured M^2 factors of beam quality in x and y directions are 16 and 1.31, respectively. In order to improve the beam quality of the 912-nm laser at x direction, a new quasi-concentric laser resonator will be designed, and an LD bar end-pumped Nd：GdVO4 slab high-power CW 912-nm TEM00 laser will be realized in the future.

Development and Research on All-solid-state Intracavity Sum-frequency laser

Generation of intracavity multi-wavelength and the basic principle of sum-frequency lasers are discused, and the current research status and development of laser diode pumped lasers are introduced in detail.

Demonstration of a diode-pumped dual-wavelength metastable krypton laser

Diode-pumped rare gas lasers are potential candidates for high-energy and high-beam quality laser systems.Currently,most investigations are focused on metastable Ar lasers.The Kr system has the unique advantages of higher quantum efficiency and lower discharge requirements for comparison.In this paper,a diode-pumped metastable Kr laser was demonstrated for the first time.Using a repetitively pulsed discharge at a Kr/He pressure of up to approximately1500 Torr,metastable Kr atoms of more than 10^(13)cm^(-3)were generated.Under diode pumping,the laser realized a dual-wavelength output with an average output power of approximately 100 mW and an optical conversion efficiency of approximately 10% with respect to the absorbed pump power.A kinetics study involving population distribution and evolution was conducted to analyze the laser performance.

Overview of ytterbium based transparent ceramics for diode pumped high energy solid-state lasers

Development of high energy laser sources with nanosecond pulses at several hertz values for repetition rate has been very attractive in recent years due to their great potential for practical applications. With the recent advancement in fabricating large size laser quality transparent ceramics, diode pumped solid-state laser generating pulse energy of 100 J at 10 Hz has been recently realized at HiLASE center using Yb:YAG ceramic with Cr:YAG cladding. This review discusses Yb based high energy lasers, specific laser geometries for efficient thermal management and the role of transparent ceramics in such diode pumped high-energy-class solid-state lasers around the world.

Theoretical and Numerical Study of Stress and Thermo-Optic in Photonic Crystal Fiber Laser in Different Pump Schemes

In this paper, we present a study of thermal, average power scaling, change in index of refraction and stress in photonic crystal fiber lasers with different pump schemes: forward pump scheme, backward pump scheme, forward pump scheme with reflection of 98%, backward pump scheme with reflection of 98% and bi-directional pump scheme. We show that management of thermal effects in fiber lasers will determine the efficiency and success of scaling-up efforts. In addition, we show that the most suitable scheme is the bi-directional.

Design of LD in-band direct-pumping side surface polished micro-rod Nd:YVO_4 laser

To diminish the thermal load, two ways, that is, in-band direct pumping and micro-rod crystal, could be adopted at the same time. The efficiency of LD in-band direct-pumping side surface polished micro-rod Nd：YVO_4 laser is numerically analyzed. By optimizing parameters such as crystal length, laser mode radius, pump beam radius, doping concentration and crystal cross-section size, the overall efficiency can reach over 50%. It is found that with micro-rod crystal implemented in the laser oscillator, high overall efficiency LD in-band direct-pumping Nd：YVO_4 laser could be realized. High efficiency combined with low thermal load makes this laser an outstanding scheme for building high-power Nd：YVO_4 lasers.