High-power and efficient orthogonally-polarized dual-wavelength Nd:YLF laser

Abstract

We demonstrate an actively Q-switched orthogonally-polarized dual-wavelength laser at 1047.4 nm and 1053.4 nm with high average power and high efficiency. The gain competition between dual-wavelength lasers is effectively suppressed by using two Nd:YLF crystals as laser gain medium. Investigations concerning different resonator structures and pulse repetition frequency were conducted to achieve the best performance of this laser. Under the total incident pump power of 32.7 W, a maximum dual-wavelength laser output power of 13.4 W is obtained at the pulse repetition rate of 30 kHz, corresponding to an optical conversion efficiency of 41%. For 1047.4 nm and 1053.4 nm lasers, the maximum average output powers are as high as 7.6 W and 5.8 W, respectively, and they also demonstrate good output power stability and beam quality. This orthogonally-polarized dual-wavelength laser has significant practical applications in various fields, such as terahertz radiation generation, precision metrology, laser radar, and spectral analysis.