Diode-side-pumped Alexandrite slab lasers

Abstract

We present the investigation of diode-side-pumping of Alexandrite slab lasers in a range of designs using linear cavity and grazing-incidence bounce cavity configurations. An Alexandrite slab laser cavity with double-pass side pumping produces 23.4 mJ free-running energy at 100 Hz rate with slope efficiency ~40% with respect to absorbed pump energy. In a slab laser with single-bounce geometry output power of 12.2 W is produced, and in a double-bounce configuration 6.5 W multimode and 4.5 W output in TEM mode is produced. These first results of slab laser and amplifier designs in this paper highlight some of the potential strategies for power and energy scaling of Alexandrite using diode-side-pumped Alexandrite slab architectures with future availability of higher power red diode pumping.

Graphene mode-locked femtosecond Alexandrite laser

“…Recently, there has also been a renewed interest in the development of Alexandrite Cr 3 :BeAl 2 O 4 lasers, following the emergence of efficient diode or solid-state pump lasers in the visible. To date, efficient pulsed and continuous-wave regimes of operation have been demonstrated [12][13][14][15][16][17]. Furthermore, by utilizing the broad tuning range of the Alexandrite gain medium, several recent studies have focused on ultrashort pulse generation.…”

High-energy diode-pumped alexandrite amplifier development with applications in satellite-based lidar

“…Alexandrite (Cr3 + :BeAl 2 O 4 ) has a combination of high thermal conductivity (23 Wm −1 K −1 [2]) and long upperstate lifetime (262 s [2] at 22 °C) making it an ideal candidate for high-energy Q-switched operation. Advancements in AlGaInP (red) diode laser technology has renewed interest in diode-pumped alexandrite enabling the production of efficient, reliable and compact systems [11], [12], [13], [14]. Recent work with LED-pumped Ce:YAG concentrators [15] for pumping alexandrite has also been demonstrated, although greater efficiency is necessary for satellite-based operation.…”

High-power 7.4W TEM00 and wavelength-tunable alexandrite laser with a novel cavity design and efficient fibre-coupled diode-pumping

“…Higher power pumping using free space diode lasers have been used to achieve higher power operation but with low-order mode operation. TEM 00 operation has been achieved in these systems but at the expense of overall efficiency [11,14,18,19]. The maximum power TEM 00 result to date, to the best of our knowledge, is a 4.5 W (50 W pumping) bounce geometry diode-pumped alexandrite laser [18].…”