Passively Q-switched yellow laser at 589 nm by intracavity frequency-doubled c-cut composite Nd:YVO4 self-Raman laser

Abstract

We report on a passively Q-switched (PQS) yellow laser emitting at 589 nm by using type-I noncritical phase-matching LBO crystal intracavity frequency-doubled self-Raman laser. A 30-mm-length c-cut YVO4/Nd:YVO4/YVO4 composite crystal was employed to accelerate heat spread as well as enhance the Raman conversion efficiency. By using a Cr4+:YAG composite crystal with the initial transmission of 83%, a yellow emission with 660 mW average output power was obtained under the absorbed pump power of 17.5 W, corresponding to the diode-to-yellow conversion efficiency of 3.8% and slope efficiency of 8.1%, respectively. The pulse repetition frequency and pulse duration were measured to be 16 kHz and 2.8 ns, respectively, corresponding to the pulse energy of 41.3 μJ and peak power of 14.7 kW. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest power of PQS yellow laser via intracavity frequency-doubled self-Raman laser.