Power-scaling Nd:YAG's quasi-four-level transition
Power-scaling Nd:YAG's quasi-four-level transition
Increasing the output power of Nd:YAG's 4F3/2 to 4I9/2 quasi-four-level transition is attractive for providing a high-radiance source with a wavelength below 1 micron for applications at the life sciences interface, ranging and sensing, or as a vital element for next-generation display technologies, when frequency converted into the blue-green part of the visible spectrum. Reabsorption losses at the lasing wavelength combined with a relatively low stimulated emission cross-section and competition with the much stronger 1.06 micron transition, demands a configuration with high pumping intensity, comparable to the pump saturation intensity at 808nm, to achieve efficient operation. However, even with the availability of increasingly bright diode-lasers, the thermal deficit of the excitation cycle and the thermo-optic properties of the YAG host medium currently limit the achievable output power at 9xx nm. Presented here is a double-clad planar-waveguide Nd:YAG laser, operating at a lasing wavelength of 946nm with an output power in the 100W regime and better than 50% optical to optical conversion efficiency. The enhanced thermal management characteristics of the waveguide structure have enabled power-scaling well beyond that possible in a bulk laser configuration. These advantages and further power-scaling possibilities will be discussed.
Mackenzie, J.I.
1d82c826-fdbf-425b-ac04-be43ccf12008
Mackenzie, J.I.
1d82c826-fdbf-425b-ac04-be43ccf12008
Mackenzie, J.I.
(2010)
Power-scaling Nd:YAG's quasi-four-level transition.
SPIE Photonics West, , San Francisco, United States.
23 - 28 Jan 2010.
(doi:10.1117/12.847996).
Record type:
Conference or Workshop Item
(Paper)
Abstract
Increasing the output power of Nd:YAG's 4F3/2 to 4I9/2 quasi-four-level transition is attractive for providing a high-radiance source with a wavelength below 1 micron for applications at the life sciences interface, ranging and sensing, or as a vital element for next-generation display technologies, when frequency converted into the blue-green part of the visible spectrum. Reabsorption losses at the lasing wavelength combined with a relatively low stimulated emission cross-section and competition with the much stronger 1.06 micron transition, demands a configuration with high pumping intensity, comparable to the pump saturation intensity at 808nm, to achieve efficient operation. However, even with the availability of increasingly bright diode-lasers, the thermal deficit of the excitation cycle and the thermo-optic properties of the YAG host medium currently limit the achievable output power at 9xx nm. Presented here is a double-clad planar-waveguide Nd:YAG laser, operating at a lasing wavelength of 946nm with an output power in the 100W regime and better than 50% optical to optical conversion efficiency. The enhanced thermal management characteristics of the waveguide structure have enabled power-scaling well beyond that possible in a bulk laser configuration. These advantages and further power-scaling possibilities will be discussed.
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e-pub ahead of print date: 2010
Venue - Dates:
SPIE Photonics West, , San Francisco, United States, 2010-01-23 - 2010-01-28
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Local EPrints ID: 78892
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/78892
PURE UUID: 159a7b4b-b7e0-436c-b457-7b243d8f8a8a
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Date deposited: 16 Mar 2010
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:44
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Author:
J.I. Mackenzie
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