High power continuous-wave Alexandrite laser with green pump

Abstract

We report on a continuous-wave (CW) Alexandrite (Cr:BeAl 2 O 4 ) laser, pumped by a high power green source at 532 nm with a diffraction limited beam. An output power of 2.6 W at 755 nm, a slope efficiency of 26%, and wavelength tunability of 85 nm have been achieved using 11 W of green pump. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest CW output power of a high brightness laser pumped Alexandrite laser reported to date. The results obtained in this experiment can lead to the development of a high power tunable CW and ultrafast sources of the near-infrared or ultraviolet radiation through frequency conversion.

Diode-pumped Yb:CALGO laser with conical refraction output

“…At the Lloyd image plane a clear CR beam with two concentric rings separated by the Poggendorff dark ring was obtained which in the far-field became a spot known as Raman. Future experiments will focus on further power scaling including the use of popular Nd-ion laser crystals [67][68][69][70] as well as continuous or discrete wavelength tunability [71][72][73][74][75] of the produced CR radiation.…”

High power Nd:YVO-KGW conical refraction laser

“…Diode-pumped Nd:YVO 4 lasers have been demonstrated with multi-watt output and high efficiency in the continuous-wave and pulsed regimes [15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. Owing to the natural birefringence and strongly polarized laser radiation, they are a popular choice for efficient process of frequency conversion [22,23] and are widely used to pump Ti:sapphire and Alexandrite lasers [24][25][26][27]. The optical and physical properties of Nd:YVO crystal are listed in Table 1 along with the crystals of Nd:KGW and Nd:YAG for comparison.…”

Diode-pumped Alexandrite laser with passive SESAM Q-switching and wavelength tunability

“…Ti:Sapphire, Cr-doped colquiriites (Cr:LiSAF, Cr:LiCAF and Cr:LiSGaF) and Cr-doped chrysoberyl (Cr.BeAl2O4)more commonly known as Alexandritesolid-state lasers are the mainly utilized laser systems. However, Ti:Sapphire vibronic laser crystals having the broadest gain bandwidth with the capability of direct generation of a few cycle optical pulses [2,3,[10][11][12][13] require complex pump sources. This causes tremendous disadvantages such as complex system structure, bulky and large physical size, and low efficiency of electricaloptical conversion [2,12].…”

“…Besides, Cr-doped colquiriite lasers are not attractive alternatives, either. Upper-state lifetime quenching at elevated temperatures, poor thermal conductivity and excited state absorption are some of the disadvantages limiting the performance of the Cr-doped colquiriite laser systems [3,10]. On the other hand, among the aforomentioned vibronic solid-state laser gain mediums, due to its number of superior optical and thermo-mechanical properties, Alexandrite is a significantly attractive alternative.…”

“…On the other hand, among the aforomentioned vibronic solid-state laser gain mediums, due to its number of superior optical and thermo-mechanical properties, Alexandrite is a significantly attractive alternative. Alexandrite has broad absorption bands in the visible range providing the opportunity of direct diode-pumping by red, green and blue laser diodes [3,10]. Providing the highest efficiency and lowest heating factor, however, the red diodes are the most favourable pump sources.…”