Performance of diode-pumped Nd:YAG and Nd:YLF lasers in a tightly folded resonator configuration

Author

Baer, Thomas M. ; Head, David F. ; Gooding, Phillip ; Kintz, Gregory J. ; Hutchison, Sheldon

Author_Institution

Spectra-Phys. Laser Diode Syst., Mountain View, CA, USA

Volume

28

Issue

4

fYear

1992

fDate

4/1/1992 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1131

Lastpage

1138

Abstract

The performance of diode bar pumped Nd:YAG and Nd:YLF lasers in a novel tightly folded resonator configuration is described. For Nd:YLF at a pump level of 9.2 W a TEM₀₀ output power of 3.1 W with a slope efficiency of 47% was observed. In Q-switched operation a pulse energy of 0.7 mJ and a pulsewidth of 5 ns were obtained. The same resonator design configured to operate as an optical amplifier provides small-signal gain of 28 dB and average output powers of greater than 1 W

Keywords

Q-switching; laser cavity resonators; lithium compounds; neodymium; optical pumping; solid lasers; 0.7 mJ; 1 W; 28 dB; 3.1 W; 47 percent; 5 ns; 9.2 W; LiYF₄:Nd; Nd:YAG solid lasers; Nd:YLF lasers; Q-switched operation; TEM₀₀ output power; YAG:Nd; YAl5O12:Nd; average output powers; diode bar pumped; diode-pumped; laser modes; optical amplifier; pulse energy; pump level; resonator design; small-signal gain; tightly folded resonator configuration; Diodes; Laser excitation; Optical design; Optical pulses; Optical resonators; Power amplifiers; Power generation; Pulse amplifiers; Pump lasers; Space vector pulse width modulation;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.135237

Filename

135237