Blue and blue-green lasers by intracavity sum-frequency generation with potassium niobate

Summary form only given. Modulated blue and blue-green light sources are strongly desired for a wide variety of applications. Recently, an efficient intracavity sum-frequency mixing (1064 nm+910 nm/spl rarr/490 nm) in a b-axis KNbO/sub 3/ crystal was demonstrated by using Ti:Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ laser and a Nd:YVO/sub 4/ laser pumped by a 400-mW laser diode. In this paper, the possibility of all-solid-state blue-green and blue lasers of 10-mW class was demonstrated by the intracavity sum-frequency generation (1064 nm+860 nm/spl rarr/475 nm, 1064 nm+780 nm/spl rarr/450 nm, 1064 nm+690 nm/spl rarr/418 nm) using KNbO/sub 3/ crystal, and the direct-modulation characteristics were examined.