Efficient Nd:YAG laser end-pumped by a 1 cm aperture laser-diode bar with a GRIN lens array coupling
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 microns 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 microns 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 percent, a threshold of 0.6 W, a maximum slope efficiency of 45 percent, and a single-lobed spatial mode.
- Publication:
-
IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics
- Pub Date:
- April 1992
- DOI:
- 10.1109/3.135233
- Bibcode:
- 1992IJQE...28.1101Y
- Keywords:
-
- High Power Lasers;
- Laser Beams;
- Laser Outputs;
- Neodymium Lasers;
- Solid State Lasers;
- Yag Lasers;
- Diodes;
- Energy Conversion Efficiency;
- Gradient Index Optics;
- Laser Arrays;
- Laser Pumping;
- Lasers and Masers