Abstract

High power operation of highly-doped ceramic Nd:YAG laser is demonstrated using a laser diode transversely-pumped bounce geometry. Using a 2% doped ceramic Nd:YAG amplifier, an output power of 45W was achieved with 158W diode pumping. The cavity configuration was optimized for TEM₀₀ operation and a high spatial quality output (M² <1.5) was obtained at an output power of 27W. A ceramic Nd:YAG laser with 4% doping was operated at over 1 watt of output power. These are the highest power levels achieved in ceramic Nd:YAG lasers at >1% doping level.

©2005 Optical Society of America

Over 40-watt diffraction-limited Q-switched output from neodymium-doped YAG ceramic bounce amplifiers

Takashige Omatsu, Kouji Nawata, Daniel Sauder, Ara Minassian, and Michael J. Damzen
Opt. Express 14(18) 8198-8204 (2006)

High efficiency laser operation of 2 at.% doped crystalline Nd:YAG in a bounce geometry

D. Sauder, A. Minassian, and M. J. Damzen
Opt. Express 14(3) 1079-1085 (2006)

Laser operation at 1.3μm of 2at.% doped crystalline Nd:YAG in a bounce geometry

D. Sauder, A. Minassian, and M. J. Damzen
Opt. Express 15(6) 3230-3235 (2007)

Compact architecture for power scaling bounce geometry lasers

S. P. Chard and M. J. Damzen
Opt. Express 17(4) 2218-2223 (2009)

High power scaling of a passively modelocked laser oscillator in a bounce geometry

D. J. Farrell and M. J. Damzen
Opt. Express 15(8) 4781-4786 (2007)