Direct amplification of a nanosecond laser diode in a high-gain diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 amplifier

Xavier Délen (1) , François Balembois (1) , Patrick Georges (1)

1 Laboratoire Charles Fabry / Lasers

We demonstrate that Nd:YVO4 can efficiently amplify a nanosecond laser diode in a very simple double-pass configuration. Based on longitudinal pumping with a high brightness fiber-coupled laser diode at 808 nm (60 W, 100 μm, 0.22 NA) and a low Nd-doped (0.2%) temperature controlled Nd:YVO4 we achieved an optical gain of 62 dB with very low (<2%) parasitic laser emission and an average output power of 10 W. At 15 kHz, we observed a strong gain saturation dynamic resulting in a pulse duration reduction from 100 to 3.5 ns. This effect enhances the peak power by a factor of 18 (130 kW) with an energy of 620 μJ.

Domains: Optics [physics.optics]

Xavier Délen, François Balembois, Patrick Georges. Direct amplification of a nanosecond laser diode in a high-gain diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 amplifier. Optics Letters, 2014, 39 (4), pp.997-1000. ⟨10.1364/OL.39.000997⟩. ⟨hal-01070107⟩