High-efficiency diode-pumped actively Q-switched ceramic Nd:YAG/BaWO_4 Raman laser operating at 1666  nm

Abstract

A diode-pumped actively Q-switched Raman laser employing BaWO4 as the Raman active medium and a ceramic Nd:YAG laser operating at 1444 nm as the pump source is demonstrated. The first-Stokes-Raman generation at 1666 nm is achieved. With a pump power of 20.3 W and pulse repetition frequency rate of 5 kHz, a maximum output power of 1.21 W is obtained, which is the highest output power for a 1.6 μm Raman laser. The corresponding optical-to-optical conversion efficiency is 6%; the pulse energy and peak power are 242 μJ and 8.96 kW, respectively.

1.55 μm Narrow-Linewidth Pulsed Laser Based on MgO:PPLN

“…However, the maximum output power of Er 3+ /Yb 3+ co-doped crystals is only ~2 W due to the low thermal conductivity and the strong up-conversion loss [6]. Another alternative is to utilize nonlinear frequency conversion, such as an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) or a Raman laser [7][8][9][10]. The optical parametric oscillator, based on 5 mol% MgO-doped periodically poled lithium niobate (MgO:PPLN) crystals, has attracted extensive attention in recent years due to its high conversion efficiency, wide wavelength tunability and ease of chip integration [11].…”