60-W cryogenically-cooled Nd:YAG 946 nm laser

Cante, Silvia and Mackenzie, Jacob (2018) 60-W cryogenically-cooled Nd:YAG 946 nm laser. Siegman School of Lasers, , Hven, Sweden. 28 Jul - 04 Aug 2018. 1 pp . (In Press)

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Poster)

Abstract

Cryogenic-cooling has proved to be an efficient way of power-scaling solid-state lasers, thanks to the enhancement of spectroscopic and thermo-optical properties of the gain media. We have investigated the absorption cross section of Nd:YAG at cryogenic temperatures via a small-signal measurement method, enabling the determination of the analogous dependence of the Energy Transfer Upconversion (ETU) macroparameter, via a z-scan technique. These results were key to establishing that, while at Room Temperature (RT) the 946 nm quasi-four-level transition of Nd:YAG is essentially limited by low gain and detrimental thermal effects exacerbated by ETU, for cryogenic cooling of the gain crystal, an overall improvement in laser performance, despite an increase in the ETU coefficient, is obtained. In-band-pumped by a diode-laser, locked to 869 nm via
a volume-Bragg-grating, we demonstrate a 60-W 946 nm laser with a 50% conversion efficiency.

Text

Poster - Author's Original

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