Laser-diode-pumped phase-locked Nd:YAG laser arrays

Author

Oka, Michio ; Masuda, Hisashi ; Kaneda, Yushi ; Kubota, Shigeo

Author_Institution

Sony Corp., Tokyo, Japan

Volume

28

Issue

4

fYear

1992

fDate

4/1/1992 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1142

Lastpage

1147

Abstract

Scaling of an efficient and compact diode-end-pumped Nd:YAG laser was demonstrated by two-dimensional phase-locked arrays. The arrays of stable resonators were formed by multiple thermal lenses induced by the simultaneous end-pumping of laser-diode-coupled fibers. Because of partial overlap of each transverse mode, the output was phase locked. Various configurations of pumping fibers were tested to study phase locking. It was found that minimization of the coherently coupled intensity between adjacent array elements have good prediction for phase difference between modes. When the plane parallel cavity as long as 30 mm was pumped by 2×2 laser diode coupled fibers, phase-locked 1.8-W continuous wave 1.06-μm output was obtained with 55% slope efficiency. 1.2-W single longitudinal mode output with single-lobe beam profile was obtained by using a spatial phase filter and the twisted mode method

Keywords

fibre optics; laser beams; laser cavity resonators; laser mode locking; laser modes; neodymium; optical pumping; solid lasers; spatial filters; 1.06 micron; 1.2 W; 1.8 W; 2D; 30 mm; 55 percent; CW lasing; IR sources; YAG:Nd; YAl5O12:Nd; adjacent array elements; coherently coupled intensity; compact diode-end-pumped; fibre couplers; laser modes; laser system scaling; laser-diode-coupled fibers; multiple thermal lenses; phase difference; phase-locked Nd:YAG laser arrays; plane parallel cavity; pumping fibers; single longitudinal mode output; single-lobe beam profile; slope efficiency; spatial phase filter; stable resonators; transverse mode; twisted mode method; Diodes; Fiber lasers; Laser excitation; Laser mode locking; Laser modes; Optical arrays; Optical fiber testing; Phased arrays; Pump lasers; Semiconductor laser arrays;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.135239

Filename

135239