Continuous-wave and passively Q-switched cladding-pumped planar waveguide lasers

Abstract

Greater than 12 W of average output power has been generated from a diode-pumped Yb:YAG cladding-pumped planar waveguide laser. The laser radiation developed is linearly polarized and diffraction limited in the guiding dimension. A slope efficiency of 0.5 W͞W with a peak optical -optical conversion efficiency of 0.31 W͞W is achieved. In a related structure, greater than 8 W of Q-switched average output power has been generated from a Nd:YAG cladding-pumped planar waveguide laser by incorporation of a Cr 41 :YAG passive Q switch monolithically into the waveguide structure. Pulse widths of 3 ns and pulse-repetition frequencies as high as 80 kHz have been demonstrated. A slope efficiency of 0.28 W͞W with a peak optical -optical conversion efficiency of 0.21 W͞W is achieved.

Graphene Q-switched Yb:KYW planar waveguide laser

“…The waveguides can be fabricated inside dielectric gain media by various techniques, including diffusion bonding, ion implantation, liquid-phase epitaxy and ultrafast laser inscription. [20][21][22][23][24] provide high intra-cavity pump intensity even with low-power pumping, excellent overlap of the pump and cavity modes, and efficient heat dissipation. The operation of waveguide lasers Q-switched or mode-locked using SESAMs and other SAs based on Cr-doped crystals, carbon nanotubes and graphene has been demonstrated.…”

“…The fabrication procedure is described in detail in Ref. 20. The Yb:KYW guiding layer with a thickness of 26.4 µm is grown onto the polished (010) surface of an undoped KYW substrate by liquid phase epitaxy.…”

A Planar Waveguide Nd:YAG Laser Using Active Q-Switching of a Hybrid Unstable Resonator

“…For smaller planar waveguide lasers, passive Q-switching has been explored [7], but active Q-switching is preferred to give more control of pulse repetition rate and process timing. In this case, the issues to address are the choice of modulator type and material and the provision of a resonator configuration that allows the use of an unstable resonator configuration, to achieve a high average power and good beam quality.…”

Neodymium-doped waveguide amplifiers and lasers for integrated optical applications

“…Figure 4.17 shows the averaged ETU parameters versus Nd 3+ concentration in open dots, and a linear fitting line of these points for 6-FDA/UVR and Al 2 O 3 waveguides. The ETU parameters of Nd 3+ in various materials [88,89,[125][126][127][128][129] are also given in the same figure and Table 4.3 for comparison. The obtained ETU parameters in 6-FDA/UVR are slightly smaller than values of ETU parameters in many other Nd 3+ -doped host materials, which might be due to the isolation of each Nd 3+ ion by its organic ligands increasing the minimum distance and reduces the interaction between neighboring Nd 3+ ions.…”

“…However, no CW lasing has been achieved in polymers due to the nature of the semiconductor and dye polymer lasers (described in Section 1.3.2). Although laser emission from rare-earth-ion-doped polymer systems was demonstrated in bulk polymer materials [58,59] and a range of solid-state waveguide lasers based on a variety of Nd 3+ -doped dielectric materials have been reported [29,[126][127][128][129], a rareearth-ion-doped continuous polymer waveguide laser has as yet not been demonstrated.…”