Generation of 589 nm Emission via Frequency Doubling of a Composite c-Cut Nd:YVO4 Self-Raman Laser

Abstract

Intracavity frequency doubling was used to generate 589 nm emission from an acousto-optic Q-switched, double-end diffusion-bonded c-cut Nd:YVO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">4</sub> crystal-based Raman laser. Frequency doubling was achieved using a non-critically phase matched LBO crystal ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\theta $ </tex-math></inline-formula> = 90°, <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\varphi $ </tex-math></inline-formula> = 0°). Yellow laser performance of this system using a diffusion-bonded crystal was compared to that achieved using non-diffusion-bonded c-cut Nd:YVO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">4</sub> crystal. The results demonstrate that the use of double-end diffusion-bonded crystals significantly improve the Raman conversion efficiency of the laser and reduce the thermal lensing effect. A maximum average output power of 3.22 W and conversion efficiency of 17% were achieved at a pulse repetition frequency of 40 kHz and with incident pump power of 18.8 W. The measured central wavelength of the laser was 589.2 nm, and the linewidth was 0.2 nm.