Y. F. Chen

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.

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.

Orthogonally polarized dual-wavelength Nd:LuVO4 laser at 1086 nm and 1089 nm

A comparison between the fluorescence spectra of the Nd-doped vanadate crystals (Nd:YVO4, Nd:GdVO4, Nd:LuVO4) for the 4F3/2 → 4I11/2 transition is studied. We numerically analyze the condition of gain-to-loss balance via an uncoated intracavity etalon to achieve the dual-wavelength operation. We further experimentally demonstrate the orthogonally polarized dual-wavelength laser with a single Nd:LuVO4 crystal. The simultaneous dual-wavelength Nd:LuVO4 laser at 1085.7 nm in σ polarization and 1088.5 nm in π polarization is realized. At an incident pump power of 12 W, the average output power obtained at 1085.7 nm and 1088.5 nm is 0.4 W and 1.7 W, respectively.

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%.

Efficient high-power terahertz beating in a dual-wavelength synchronously mode-locked laser with dual gain media

We originally present a novel tactic to accomplish a compact efficient dual-wavelength synchronously mode-locked laser by physically combining the Nd:YVO4 crystal to the Nd:GdVO4 crystal as a composite gain medium. With the developed method, the total output power at 1.06 μm could be effectually produced to reach 1.3 W under the optimally balanced two-color intensities. The corresponding mode-locked pulse width and repetition rate are measured to be 47 ps and 2.86 GHz, respectively. Through the optical beating between two carrier frequencies of dual-color synchronous pulses, a train of 0.32 THz ultrashort pulses is further generated with the effective duration of down to 1.6 ps.

High-power high-repetition-rate subpicosecond monolithic Yb:KGW laser with self-mode locking.

We report on a high-power subpicosecond monolithic self-mode-locked Yb:KGW laser with the pulse repetition rate up to several tens of gigahertz. Experimental results reveal that not only the repetition rate but also the pulse width depend on the length of the laser crystal. Using a coated Yb:KGW crystal with a length of 3.36 mm, mode-locked pulses with pulse duration of 850 fs at the repetition rate of 22.4 GHz have been achieved. With an incident pump power of 10.5 W, an average output power of 3.6 W was achieved which corresponds to the optical conversion efficiency of 34.3%.

Picosecond optical vortex converted from multigigahertz self-mode-locked high-order Hermite-Gaussian Nd:GdVO(4) lasers

We report on a gigahertz self-mode-locked high-order Hermite-Gaussian (HG) Nd:GdVO(4) laser. With a pump power of 2.2 W, the average output power for the TEM(0,m) modes from m=9 to m=0 are among 350-780 mW at a repetition rate of 3.5 GHz. The mode-locked pulse width is in the range of 20-25 ps for various HG TEM(0,m) modes. With a simple cylindrical-lens converter, the mode-locked HG beams are converted to generate picosecond optical vortex pulses.

Tunable GHz pulse repetition rate operation in high-power TEM(00)-mode Nd:YLF lasers at 1047 nm and 1053 nm with self mode locking.

We report on a high-power diode-pumped self-mode-locked Nd:YLF laser with the pulse repetition rate up to several GHz. A novel tactic is developed to efficiently select the output polarization state for achieving the stable TEM(00)-mode self-mode-locked operations at 1053 nm and 1047 nm, respectively. At an incident pump power of 6.93 W and a pulse repetition rate of 2.717 GHz, output powers as high as 2.15 W and 1.35 W are generated for the σ- and π-polarization, respectively. We experimentally find that decreasing the separation between the gain medium and the input mirror not only brings in the pulse shortening thanks to the enhanced effect of the spatial hole burning, but also effectively introduces the effect of the spectral filtering to lead the Nd:YLF laser to be in a second harmonic mode-locked status. Consequently, pulse durations as short as 8 ps and 8.5 ps are obtained at 1053 nm and 1047 nm with a pulse repetition rate of 5.434 GHz.

High-power diode-end-pumped laser with multi-segmented Nd-doped yttrium vanadate

A Nd:YVO4 crystal consisting of three segments with different doping concentrations is originally developed for power scaling in diode-end-pumped solid-state laser. We systematically make a comparison of laser characteristics between the multi-segmented and conventional composite crystals to show the feasibility of using gain medium with multiple doping concentrations for power scale-up in end-pumped laser without introducing significant thermally accompanied effects. We further construct a dual-end-pumped actively Q-switched oscillator at 1064 nm to verify the usefulness of our crystal design, where the largest pulse energy of 1.06 mJ and the highest output power of 45 W are efficiently generated.