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We present the diode pumping of a Nd:ASL (Sr1-xLax-yNdyMgxAl12-xO19) crystal for second harmonic generation at 453 nm. We have developed a high-brightness pump source based on a tapered amplifier in an extended cavity with a volume Bragg grating for wavelength stabilization. A pump brightness of 110 MW cm-2 sr-1 is obtained with a linewidth lower than 80 pm at 798 nm. This laser source is used to pump a Nd:ASL crystal to obtain 300 mW at 906 nm and 53 mW at 453 nm by intracavity doubling with a LBO crystal

Nd-doped strontium and lanthanum (ASL) crystals Sr 1-x La x-y Nd y Mg x Al 12-x O 19 (0.05 ≤ x ≤ 0.5; y = 0.05) were grown by Czochralski pulling technique. Up to 1.67W of 900nm IR output laser power for an absorbed power of 2.53W was obtained under Ti:sapphire pumping at 792nm. Intracavity second harmonic generation experiments led to 320mW of blue laser power at 450nm with a 10mm-long BiB 3 O 6 nonlinear crystal. Other nonlinear crystals were also evaluated such as LBO.