High Power Diode-End-Pumped Nd:YAG 946-nm Laser and Its Efficient Frequency Doubling
ZHOU Rui1,2,3, ZHAO Shi-Yong1,2,3, CAI Zhi-Qiang1,2,3, ZHANG Qiang1,2,3, WEN Wu-Qi1,2,3, DING Xin1,2,3, WANG Peng1,2,3, DING Li-Li4, YAO Jian-Quan1,2,3
1College of Precision Instrument and Optoelectronics Engineering, Institute of Laser and Optoelectronics, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072
2Cooperated Institute of Nankai University and Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072
3Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Information and Technical Science (Ministry of Education), Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072
4School of Management, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049
High Power Diode-End-Pumped Nd:YAG 946-nm Laser and Its Efficient Frequency Doubling
1College of Precision Instrument and Optoelectronics Engineering, Institute of Laser and Optoelectronics, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072
2Cooperated Institute of Nankai University and Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072
3Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Information and Technical Science (Ministry of Education), Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072
4School of Management, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049
Abstract： We report a high power operation of the 44F3/2 → 4I9/2 transition in diode-end-pumped laser at 946nm. The maximum output of 5.1W is obtained with a short linear plano-concave cavity, and the slope efficiency is 24.5% at incident pump power of 23.3W. To our knowledge, this is the highest value of the LD-pumped Nd:YAG 946nm lasers that employ the conversional Nd:YAG rod as the gain medium. By intracavity frequency doubling with an LBO crystal, up to 982mW cw output power in the blue spectral range at 473nm is achieved at an incident pump power of 10.9W with a compact three-element cavity, leading to optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 9%. The conversion efficiency should be increased to 15.1%, if the rather low absorption coefficient of this Nd:YAG is considered.
2005, Vol. 22 
