Tapered diode laser pumped 946 nm Nd:YAG laser

We successfully implemented a 946 nm Nd:YAG laser based on a 808 nm tapered diode pump laser. The tapered diode is developed at the Ferdinand-Braun-Institute fur Hochstfrequenztechnik in Germany. Figure 2 shows the experimental setup and results of each pump source coupled into a 1.5 mm crystal and a 3 mm crystal in a cavity with 3% output coupling. We failed to achieve lasing in the 3 mm crystal with the BAL pump, but this was expected and agreed with numerical results. Absorption of the tapered pump is 84% and 63% for the 3 mm and 1.5 mm crystal respectively. In comparison with a BAL pumped laser, we show that tapered diode laser pumping potentially increase the power of 946 nm lasers by a factor of two and reduce the threshold by a factor of three.