Efficient excitations of radially and azimuthally polarized Nd 3+:YAG ceramic microchip laser by use of subwavelength multilayer concentric gratings composed of Nb2O5/SiO2

Cylindrical vector beams were produced from laser diode end-pumped Nd:YAG ceramic microchip laser by use of two types of subwavelength multilayer gratings as the axisymmetric-polarization output couplers respectively. The grating mirrors are composed of high- and low-refractive-index (Nb2O5/SiO2) layers alternately while each layer is shaped into triangle and concentric corrugations. For radially polarized laser output, the beam power reached 610mW with a polarization extinction ratio ( PER) of 61: 1 and a slope efficiency of 68.2%; for azimuthally polarized laser output, the beam power reached 626mW with a PER of 58: 1 and a slope efficiency of 47.6%. In both cases, the laser beams had near-diffraction limited quality. Small differences of beam power, PER and slope efficiency between radially and azimuthally polarized laser outputs were not critical, and could be minimized by further optimized adjustment to laser cavity and the reflectances of respective grating mirrors. The results manifested, by use of the photonic crystal gratings mirrors and end-pumped microchip laser configuration, CVBs can be generated efficiently with high modal symmetry and polarization purity. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.

LD 侧面抽运Nd :YAG陶瓷激光器运转条件下归一化热参数优化理论及实验研究

The suppressing effect of laser extraction on the non-radiation transition process is taken into account when the heat model of gain media is developed. Based on the developed heat model, the heat generation in the operating LD side-pumped Nd: YAG ceramic lasers is quantified through using the normalized heating parameter, which can be deduced from the experimental results of the slope efficiency and the absorbed pumping power of the gain media. The main factors which influence on the heat generation are investigated by studying the normalized heating parameter, and the results show that the changes of the laser extraction efficiency, the beam overlap efficiency and the Nd3+ concentration will result in obvious variations of the normalized heating parameter. In this work, the laser extraction efficiency increases to 0.905 by the optimization of the transmission of the output coupling, and the normalized heating parameter decrease to 0.474, correspondingly.

钛宝石激光器端面抽运Nd：YAG陶瓷激光器热沉积理论和实验研究

通过热沉积系数研究在激光提取条件下掺杂原子分数为1.0%的Nd：YAG陶瓷激光器中热沉积问题.热沉积系数定义为热沉积功率与激光器输出功率之比.在理论分析基础上,通过测量激光器斜率效率来间接测定热沉积系数,实验测定的热沉积系数值为0.63.建立激光提取条件下Nd：YAG陶瓷发热模型,讨论了影响热沉积系数的主要因素.结果表明：热沉积系数对Nd：YAG陶瓷的辐射量子效率、交叠效率以及激光提取效率的变化非常敏感.为有效减少介质内热沉积,在激光器优化设计中交叠效率和激光提取效率是需要着重考虑的参数.所得结果可为进一

The analysis of the transient temperature distribution of double-slab Nd:YAG laser medium

A novel double-slab Nd:YAG laser, which uses face-pumped slab medium cooled by liquid with different temperatures on both sides, is proposed. The thermal distortion of wavefront caused by the non-uniform temperature distribution in the laser gain media can be self-compensated. According to the method of operation, the models of the temperature distribution and stress are presented, and the analytic solutions for the model are derived. Furthermore, the numerical simulations with pulse pumping energy of 10 J and repetition frequencies of 500 and 1000 Hz are calculated respectively for Nd:YAG laser medium. The simulation results show that the temperature gradient remains the approximative linearity, and the heat stress is within the extreme range. Then the absorption coefficient is also discussed. The result indicates that the doping concentration cannot be too large for the high repetition frequency laser. It has been proved that the high repetition frequency, high laser beam quality, and high average output power of the order of kilowatt of Nd: YAG slab laser can be achieved in this structure.

Cr^4＋：YAG被动调QNd：YAG陶瓷激光器的研究

介绍了近几年迅速发展的一种新型激光介质——透明Nd：YAG多晶陶瓷的发展状况，对比分析了多晶陶瓷与单晶的光谱特性、激光特性和连续实验研究情况。并对钛宝石激光器调谐至808nm，端面抽运Nd：YAG陶瓷被动调Q全固态激光器的脉冲运转进行了较为详细的理论分析和实验研究。采用初始透射率为90％的Cr^4＋：YAG可饱和吸收晶体，被动调Q的阈值功率为119mW，当端面抽运功率为465mW时，获得波长为1064nm，脉宽为16ns，重复频率为18．18kHz，单脉冲能量为3．4μJ，平均输出功率为61mW的稳定调Q

边缘泵浦被动调Q的Nd：YAG薄片激光器

文中报道了一台采用激光二极管部分边缘泵浦方式的高功率薄片激光器，晶体尺寸是1 mm×10 mm×60 mm。Cr4+：YAG被用来作为被动调Q晶体，在重复频率高于10kHz时，获得了脉宽10ns，平均功率70W，斜线效率为36\%的激光输出。通过控制泵浦光束直径的大小，我们在厚度方向得到了近似衍射极限的光束输出。整个激光器结构紧凑，大小为60 mm×174 mm×150 mm。

Diode-end-pumped passively mode-locked ceramic Nd : YAG Laser with a semiconductor saturable mirror

We report on a diode- pumped CW passively mode locked ceramic Nd: YAG laser with SESAM ( semiconductor saturable absorber mirror), wavelength 1064nm. At a pump power of 7.6w, the pulse width was estimated to be similar to 8.3ps with repetition rate similar to 130MHz and the average output power was 1.59w. To our knowledge, this was the first demonstration that ceramic Nd: YAG was used for diode pumped CW passively mode locking. (C) 2005 Optical Society of America.

Dual-wavelength competitive output in Nd:Y3Sc1.5Al3.5O12 ceramic disk laser

In this paper, we demonstrated a dual-wavelength competitive output in Nd:Y3SC1.5Al3.5O12 ceramic disk laser. Different dual-wavelength output behaviors for Nd:YSAG and Nd:YAG ceramic disk laser were investigated and discussed. By applying the energy transfer model, we suggested the reasonable explanation for this new phenomenon as the disordered replacing of Al3+ ions by Sc3+ ions. The main advantage of the dual-wavelength ceramic laser is the possibility to serve as the seed source to generate Terahertz radiation. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Polarization Self-Modulation Phenomenon in a Free Oscillated Nd: YAG Laser

Polarization self-modulation effect in a free oscillated Nd:YAG laser is investigated after a quarter wave plate is introduced independently in the two positions of the cavity. As described in the previous experiments, the intensity components in the orthogonal directions are modulated with a period of the round-trip time or twice. Different pulse shapes reveal that the seed field from the spontaneous emission is not uniform and seems to be stochastic for each pulse.

Research on Q-Switched Nd : YAG laser engraving

IN this paper, the engraving process with Q-Switched Nd:YAG laser is investigated. High power density is the pre- requisition to vapor materials, and high repetition rate makes the engraving process highly efficient. An acousto- optic Q-Switch is applied in the cavity of CW 200 W Nd:YAG laser to achieve the high peak power density and the high pulse repetition rate. Different shape craters are formed in a patterned structure on the material surface when the laser beam irradiates on it by controlling power density, pulse repetition rate, pulse quantity and pulse interval. In addition, assisting oxygen gas is used for not only improving combustion to deepen the craters but also removing the plasma that generated on the top of craters. Off-focus length classified as negative and positive has a substantial effect on crater diameters. According to the message of rotating angle positions from material to be engraved and the information of graph pixels from computer, a special graph is imparted to the material by integrating the Q- Switched Nd:YAG laser with the computer graph manipulation and the numerically controlled worktable. The crater diameter depends on laser beam divergence and laser focal length. The crater diameter changes from 50 micrometers to 300 micrometers , and the maximum of crater depth reaches one millimeter.

Laser diode array side-pumped acousto-optic induced unidirectional operation Q-switched Nd : YAG slab ring laser

A laser-diode array (LDA) side-pumped Nd:YAG slab ring laser is described that incorporates a prism-shaped acousto-optic modulator to enforce unidirectional operation and Q-switching. When pumped by the maximum power of 50 W, Q-switched energies of 3.6 mJ and 50 ns duration, corresponding to a peak power of 72 kW, are obtained. (C) 1999 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. [S0091-3286(99)01306-9].