Efficient lasing in Nd:GdVO₄depressed cladding waveguides produced by femtosecond laser writing

Abstract

We report on waveguide lasers at 1064.5 nm in femtosecond laser written double cladding waveguides in Nd:GdVO 4 crystals. The core waveguide guides both TE and TM polarized modes with considerably symmetric single modal profiles, and show good transmission property (propagation loss as low as 1.0 dB/cm). Under the optical pumping at 808 nm, maximum output power up to 0.43 W of the continuous wave waveguide laser with a slope efficiency of 52.3% have been achieved, which is 21.6% and 23% higher than those of the laser generated from single depressed cladding waveguide, respectively. Furthermore, the maximum output power of the waveguide laser is 72% higher than that of the double-line waveguide.