This work reports single-frequency laser oscillation at λ = 1003.4 nm of a diode-pumped vertical external cavity surface-emitting semiconductor laser for metrological applications. A low thermal resistance of the semiconductor active component is achieved by solid-liquid interdiffusion bonding onto a SiC substrate. The spectro-temporal dynamics of the laser is theoretically studied. Experimentally, an output power of 1.7 W is demonstrated in free running operation, and up to 500 mW in a true single longitudinal mode. Furthermore, single-frequency laser emission at λ = 501.7 nm is obtained by intracavity frequency doubling, resulting in a total output power as high as 62 mW.

This work reports continuous laser oscillation at ϭ1064.3 nm at room temperature in Nd:YAG planar waveguides fabricated by two different techniques: proton implantation with a multi-implant of energies around 1 MeV and carbon implantation with a single-implant at an energy of 7 MeV. Threshold powers of 11 and 22 mW and slope efficiencies of 7% and 9% were achieved in the proton-and carbon-implanted guides, respectively. The laser outputs show a very high stability operating in cw regime at room temperature. © 2003 American Institute of Physics. ͓DOI: 10.1063/1.1628817͔The field of waveguide lasers based on integrated-optics technology has created much interest during the last years and recently. The confinement of light in optical waveguides maintains a small spot size and hence a high intensity over lengths than would normally be forbidden by diffraction. If the waveguide is doped with an active ion, the enhancement of laser efficiency is allowed and, therefore, extremely low laser thresholds can be achieved. The excellent laser properties of Nd 3ϩ ions combined with the characteristics of the YAG host allow the development of compact and efficient amplifiers and solid-state lasers, preserving the crystal quality and homogeneity. Several techniques, such as epitaxial growth of Nd:YAG layers on pure YAG substrates, 1 or helium implantation on Nd-doped YAG crystals, 2 have been proposed to fabricate optical waveguides, allowing high slope efficiency and low threshold laser operation at 1.06 m. In fact, Nd:YAG was the first dielectric material that demonstrated the suitability of the ion implantation technique to fabricate waveguide lasers. The ion implantation process produces radiation damage at the end of the ion track ͑nuclear stopping region͒ of the crystal, giving rise to a decrease of the refractive index in many dielectric materials.4 This low-density region generates an optical barrier that confines the radiation, producing an optical waveguide. Typically, a 2.8 MeV He ϩ ion energy produces an optical barrier situated at around 6 m beneath the surface. An alternative way to fabricate wider waveguides using ion implantation is to use protons instead of He ϩ ions, because, for a given energy, the ion range is much deeper in the case of lighter ions, 5 this fact being advantageous when infrared light propagates along the waveguide. Instead of using light ions, optical waveguides can also be produced implanting heavy ions, 6 such as carbon, 7 for which a greater index decrease in the nuclear region is produced for a given dose. This leads to the formation of a higher optical barrier, which implies a reduction of tunneling losses. In this work, the characterization of Nd:YAG waveguide lasers operating at 1.06 m fabricated by either proton or carbon implantation is reported. The characterization includes the laser excitation range, the pump powers needed to reach laser oscillation as well as the slope efficiencies for both implanted waveguides. The experimental results combined with the theoretical estimations ...