Comparative Study Between Extracavity and Intracavity Frequency-Doubled Laser at 532 nm: Application for the Deep Ultraviolet Generation at 266 nm

We construct a reliable actively Q-switched Nd:YVO₄ laser to comparatively investigate the output performance of the second harmonic generation between the extracavity and intracavity configurations under a similar operated condition. It is experimentally found that the peak power at 532 nm obtained with the extracavity second harmonic generation is remarkably higher than that obtained with the intracavity configuration, even though the higher output power and larger pulse energy can be acquired with the intracavity second harmonic generation. We further perform the extracavity fourth harmonic generation to verify that the extracavity second harmonic generation is more advantageous in generating deep ultraviolet laser at 266 nm than the intracavity one, where the conversion efficiencies from 532 to 266 nm for each case are 37.1% and 7.2%, respectively. Moreover, under an incident pump power of 26 W at 808 nm and a pulse repetition rate of 40 kHz, the output power at 266 nm as high as 1.67 W is effectually generated with the combination of the extracavity second and fourth harmonic generations, corresponding to the conversion efficiency from 808 to 266 nm up to 6.4%.