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A Nd:YAG slab is partially end pumped by a diode laser stack with three diode laser bars. The pumped volume has a rectangular cross section. A hybrid resonator, which is stable in the plane of small dimension and is off-axis unstable in the plane of large dimension of the gain cross section, was used to yield highly efficient laser operation at diffraction-limited beam quality. The laser design and experimental results are reported.

We demonstrate a compact, efficient Nd:YVO(4) stable-unstable hybrid slab oscillator that was partially end pumped at 880 nm. A maximum output power of 165 W at 1064 nm was obtained with an optical-to-optical efficiency from absorbed pump power to laser output of up to 60% and a slope efficiency of up to 66%. The beam propagation factors M(2) were 1.7 in the stable direction and 1.4 in the unstable direction without sidelobes.

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