Laser with cladding pump scheme for short planar waveguides

Summary form only given.Diffusion-bonded planar waveguide geometries are very attractive for highly efficient diode pumped lasers. These waveguides are diode-pumped, in general in the waveguide plane, resulting in high asymmetrical gain profiles. The efficiency of direct end-pumping of extended active bulk media (length >3 mm) with broad-stripe diode lasers is limited due to their small confocal parameters and hence the overlap of pump and resonator mode over the entire length cannot be maintained. The advantages of cladding-pumped fiber lasers are well-known. Laser performance of a 5-mm long cladding-pumped 100-/spl mu/m Yb:YAG planar waveguide is reported. This configuration offers an excellent confinement of the pump field achieved by waveguiding of the slow-axis of the diode pump perpendicular to the active layer and non-guiding of the fast-axis.