Efficient Nd:YAG laser end-pumped by a 1 cm aperture laser-diode bar with a GRIN lens array coupling

Author

Yamaguchi, Satoshi ; Imai, Hirofumi

Author_Institution

Nippon Steel Corp., Kanagawa, Japan

Volume

28

Issue

4

fYear

1992

fDate

4/1/1992 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1101

Lastpage

1105

Abstract

A 10-W laser-diode bar, a multistripe monolithic laser-diode array, has been used to end-pump Nd:YAG. Twenty beams emitted from 20 stripes, spaced 500 μm apart, of a 1-cm linear diode array were collimated by a 1-cm-wide lens array consisting of 20 GRIN (graded-index) lenses with a width of 500 μm to pump the Nd:YAG facet. The maximum Nd:YAG CW output power at 1064 nm of 3.24 W CW was obtained at 8.6 W incident pump power with a total electrical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 10.1%, a threshold of 0.6 W, a maximum slope efficiency of 45%, and a single-lobed spatial mode

Keywords

gradient index optics; laser modes; lenses; neodymium; optical collimators; optical pumping; semiconductor laser arrays; solid lasers; 0.6 W; 1 cm; 10 W; 10.1 percent; 1064 nm; 3.24 W; 45 percent; 500 micron; 8.6 W; CW output power; GRIN lens array coupling; Nd:YAG laser; YAG:Nd; YAl5O12:Nd; beam collimation; electrical-to-optical conversion efficiency; end-pumped; incident pump power; integrated optics; laser-diode bar; maximum slope efficiency; multistripe monolithic laser-diode array; single-lobed spatial mode; Apertures; Collimators; Diodes; Laser beams; Laser excitation; Lenses; Optical arrays; Power generation; Pump lasers; Semiconductor laser arrays;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.135233

Filename

135233