High-power ultraviolet 278-nm laser from fourth-harmonic generation of an Nd:YAG amplifier in CsB3O5 crystal**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation Program of China (Grant Nos. 11504389 and 61505226), the National Key Research Development Program of China (Grant Nos. 2016YFB040203 and 61535013), and the National Development Project for Major Scientific Research Facility of China (Grant No. ZDYZ2012-2).

Abstract

We report on the experimental investigation and theoretical analysis of a nanosecond pulse high power ultraviolet (UV) 278 nm laser by fourth-harmonic generation (FHG) of a 1112-nm Nd:YAG amplifier in LiB3O5 (LBO) and CsB3O5 (CBO) crystals. The UV laser delivers a maximum average power of 10.3 W at 278 nm with peak power of 36.8 kW under input pump power of 41 W at 556 nm. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the highest output power at the specific UV wavelength of 278 nm. We also performed the theoretical investigation on the FHG with a model in the Gaussian approximation of both spatial and temporal profiles, especially accounting for the two-photon absorption effect in CBO crystal for the first time. The average output power, pulse width, and beam spatial distribution of the UV laser were simulated. The theoretical calculations are in close agreement with the experimental results.