Intracavity gain gratings

Abstract : Intracavity gain gratings are theoretically demonstrated to exhibit diffraction efficiencies that are 100 times larger than unity at pump powers substantially below the lasing threshold. Experiments performed using a Nd:YVO4 microlaser pumped below threshold by two interfering Ti:sapphire laser beams are described. Huge enhancement of the diffraction efficiency (5000x) and a large increase of the angular selectivity (10x) are demonstrated despite the angular reduction of the Fabry-Perot cavity finesse. Much better results are expected using gain gratings with larger areas or thinner cavities such as vertical cavity surfaceemitting lasers. Such large fan-out values could be very interesting for applications to optical signal processing.