Title :
Amplification of a low-power picosecond Nd:YVO/sub 4/ laser by a diode-laser side-pumped grazing-incidence slab amplifier
Author :
Agnesi, Antonio ; Carrá, Luca ; Pirzio, Federico ; Reali, Giancarlo ; Tomaselli, Alessandra ; Scarpa, Daniele ; Vacchi, Carla
Author_Institution :
Dipt. di Elettronica, Pavia Univ.
Abstract :
An optimized diode-laser side-pumped grazing-incidence Nd:YVO4 amplifier was used to increase the power of a 50-mW 150-MHz continuous-wave (CW)-pumped mode-locked oscillator up to 6.1 W in single pass, with 22% optical-to-optical efficiency, or up to 8.4 W in double pass, with 30% efficiency. Both beam quality (M2<1.4 from TEM00 seed pulses) and pulse duration (7.5 ps from 6.9 ps) were preserved. Single- or double-pass small-signal gain greater than 40 dB was achieved. These experimental results have been corroborated by a numerical model analysis of the amplifier
Keywords :
laser beams; laser mode locking; neodymium; optical pulse generation; optical pumping; solid lasers; yttrium compounds; 150 MHz; 22 percent; 30 percent; 50 mW; 6.9 ps; 7.5 ps; Nd:YVO4 laser; YVO4:Nd; beam quality; diode-laser side-pumping; grazing-incidence slab amplifier; mode-locked oscillator; optical-to-optical efficiency; Diodes; Laser mode locking; Optical amplifiers; Optical pulses; Oscillators; Power amplifiers; Pulse amplifiers; Semiconductor optical amplifiers; Slabs; Stimulated emission; Laser amplifiers; mode-locked lasers; solid lasers; ultrafast optics;
Journal_Title :
Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of
DOI :
10.1109/JQE.2006.878187
