Compact diode-pumped nanosecond Nd:YVO₄grazing-incidence slab amplifier

Abstract

Abstract： A high average power and high beam quality nanosecond laser is presented that is based on CW diode side-pumped Nd:YVO 4 grazing-incidence slab amplifier. A TEM 00 , passively Q-switched diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser as the seed laser, generating a M 2 ≈1.3 beam train of 0.25W, 2.3ns pulses with adjustable repetition rate in the range 5-20kHz. After double-pass amplification, more than 20W of output power with a beam quality of M 2 ≈1.4 is obtained at an optical-optical efficiency of 35%. The high brightness of this laser system seems ideal for nonlinear optics and laser processing applications.

7 kHz sub-nanosecond microchip laser amplified by a grazing incidence double pass slab amplifier

“…For the wide absorption and large emission cross sections and proper fluorescence lifetime of Nd∶YVO 4 crystals, many diode-pumped Nd∶YVO 4 MOPA systems were reported [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] . Traditional diode end-pumped Nd∶YVO 4 straight amplifiers can be seeded by Nd∶YAG lasers or laser diodes (LDs) [9][10][11] .…”

“…Traditional diode end-pumped Nd∶YVO 4 straight amplifiers can be seeded by Nd∶YAG lasers or laser diodes (LDs) [9][10][11] . Side-pumped Nd∶YVO 4 bounce amplifiers with grazing incidence beams have been proved to be an excellent design solution for achieving high gains, thus allowing for a significant power extraction with a compact and simple setup [12][13][14][15][16] . Agnesi et al reported a side-pumped Nd∶YVO 4 bounce amplifier, 1 MW pulse peak power with 577 ps duration and 545 μJ energy was achieved, and the average output power was 5.45 W at 10 kHz, corresponding to 13% extraction efficiency [14] .…”