K. W. Su

Comparison of thermal lensing effects between single-end and double-end diffusion-bonded Nd:YVO 4 crystals for 4 F 3/2 → 4 I 11/2 and 4 F 3/2 → 4 I 13/2 transitions

The effective focal lengths of thermal lens in diode-end-pumped continuous-wave Nd:YVO(4) lasers for the (4)F(3/2)-->(4)I(11/2) and (4)F(3/2)-->(4)I(13/2) transitions were determined. The experimental results revealed that the thermal lensing effect for the (4)F(3/2)-->(4)I(11/2) transition can be sufficiently improved by employing a single-end diffusion-bonded Nd:YVO(4) crystal replacing a conventional Nd:YVO(4) crystal. However, using a double-end diffusion-bonded Nd:YVO(4) crystal was a great improvement over a single-end diffusion-bonded Nd:YVO(4) crystal for the (4)F(3/2)-->(4)I(13/2) transition with stronger thermal lensing effect.

Compact efficient multi-GHz Kerr-lens mode-locked diode-pumped Nd:YVO 4 laser

We demonstrate the compact efficient multi-GHz Kerr-lens mode locking in a diode-pumped Nd:YVO(4) laser with a simple linear cavity without the need of any additional components. Experimental results reveal that the laser system can be characterized in stable single-pulse and multiple-pulse mode-locked operations. With a pump power of 2.5 W, the compact laser cavity produces average output powers greater than 0.8 W with a pulse width less than 10 ps in the range of 2-6 GHz.

Efficient diode-pumped actively Q-switched Nd:YAG/BaWO~4 intracavity Raman laser

Barium tungstate (BaWO4) is employed to achieve efficient stimulated Raman scattering conversion in a compact diode-pumped actively Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. With an incident pump power of 9.2 W, 1.56 W of 1181 nm first-Stokes average output power was generated at a pulse repetition rate of 20 kHz, corresponding to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 16.9%.

High-power, diode-end-pumped, multigigahertz self-mode-locked Nd:YVO 4 laser at 1342 nm

We report on a high-power, diode-pumped, self-mode-locked laser at 1342 nm with the Kerr effect arising from large third-order nonlinearity of Nd:YVO(4) crystal. At the pump power of 10.2 W, the average output power of 1.2 W was generated with a repetition rate in the range of 2-6 GHz. The mode-locked pulse width can be smoothly varied from 11.5 to 37 ps by controlling the amount of spatial hole burning.

High-power efficient tunable Nd:GdVO4 laser at 1083 nm.

An efficient tunable diode-pumped Nd:GdVO4 laser at 1083 nm has been constructed by suppressing the higher gain transition near 1063 nm. With 12.5 W diode pump power, the free-running output power centered about 1083 nm was up to 3.4 W, corresponding to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 30.1%. When a simple uncoated etalon was used as a wavelength-selective element, the output power at each helium transition was higher than 2.5 W.

Compact efficient Q-switched eye-safe laser at 1525 nm with a double-end diffusion-bonded Nd:YVO 4 crystal as a self-Raman medium

We report on an efficient Q-switched eye-safe laser at 1525 nm with a double-end diffusion-bonded Nd:YVO(4) crystal as a self-Raman gain medium. A diffusion-bonded crystal not only reduces the thermal effects but also increase the interaction length for the stimulated Raman scattering. With an input pump power of 17.2 W, average power of 2.23 W at the first- Stokes wavelength of 1525 nm is generated at a pulse repetition rate of 40 kHz, corresponding to a conversion efficiency of 13%.

High-efficiency Q-switched dual-wavelength emission at 1176 and 559 nm with intracavity Raman and sum-frequency generation

An efficient Q-switched dual-wavelength laser with self-frequency Raman conversion in composite Nd:YVO(4) and intracavity sum-frequency generation in BBO is reported. With an input pump power of 17.5 W, average power of 0.53 W at the first-Stokes 1176 nm and average power of 1.67 W at the sum-frequency mixed 559 nm are simultaneously generated at a pulse repetition rate of 100 kHz, corresponding to a total conversion efficiency of 12.5%.

Femtosecond high-power spontaneous mode-locked operation in vertical-external cavity surface-emitting laser with gigahertz oscillation

We realize a femtosecond high-power spontaneous mode-locked operation with gigahertz oscillation in a vertical-external cavity surface-emitting laser under the condition of eliminating the internal and external unwanted reflection. We find that the reflectivity of the output coupler has a significant influence not only on the output power but also on the output pulse duration. With an incident pump power of 20 W, we have achieved 2.35 W of average output power with 778 fs pulse duration at a repetition rate of 2.17 GHz. The shortest pulse duration was 654 fs at an average output power of 0.45 W.

High power passively Q-switched ytterbium fiber laser with Cr 4+ :YAG as a saturable absorber

We report an efficient high-peak-power and high-average-power passively Q-switched ytterbium fiber laser with a Cr(4+):YAG crystal as a saturable absorber in an external-resonator configuration. At an incident pump power of 17.5 W, the passively Q-switched fiber laser produces an average power greater than 6.2 W with a pulse repetition rate of 48 kHz. The output pulses noticeably display a mode-locking phenomenon that leads to the maximum peak power to be higher than 20 kW.

Diode-pumped multi-frequency Q-switched laser with intracavity cascade Raman emission.

A diode-pumped actively Q-switched mixed Nd:Y(0.3)Gd(0.7)VO(4) laser with an intracavity KTP crystal is developed to produce cascade SRS emission up to the fourth order. With an incident pump power of 14 W and a repetition rate of 50 kHz, the average output powers at the first, second, third and fourth Stokes modes are approximately 0.05 W, 0.61 W, 0.25 W, and 0.11 W, respectively. The maximum peak power is greater than 2 kW.