Intra-cavity frequency-doubled Cr:LiCAF laser with 265 mW continuous-wave blue (395-405 nm) output
U. Demirbasa, R. Ueckerb, D. Klimmb, B. Sumpfc, G. Erbertc
Published in:
Opt. Commun., vol. 320, pp. 38-42 (2014).
Abstract:
We describe continuous-wave (cw) intracavity frequency-doubling experiments performed with a Cr:LiCAF laser. The Cr:LiCAF crystal is home-grown and had passive losses below 0.15% per cm. The laser is pumped by two recently-developed high-brightness tapered diodes, providing a total pump power of 2 W at 680 nm. The Cr:LiCAF laser generated up to 585 mW of cw output power around 800 nm with 43% slope efficiency at an absorbed pump power of 1.4 W. The low passive losses of the crystal enabled storage of up to 380 W of intracavity laser power using a 0.07% transmitting output coupler, demonstrating suitability of Cr:LiCAF gain media for intracavity nonlinear conversion experiments. By performing intracavity frequency doubling with a BBO crystal, cw second-harmonic powers as high as 265 mW around 400 nm have been realized with optical-to-optical conversion efficiencies as high as 13.3%. To our knowledge, these are the highest cw frequency-doubled laser powers and conversion efficiencies obtained from Cr:Colquiriites to date. Moreover, obtained efficiencies are superior compared to what have been achieved with similar Ti:Sapphire systems, due to lower passive losses of Cr:LiCAF crystal. These results demonstrate the appropriateness of Cr:LiCAF gain media as a high-power tunable cw radiation generator in 375-435 nm region.
a Laser Technology Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Antalya International University, 07190 Antalya, Turkey
b Leibniz Institute for Crystal Growth, Max-Born-Str. 2, 12489 Berlin, Germany
c Ferdinand-Braun-Institut, Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik, Gustav-Kirchhoff-Straße 4, 12489 Berlin, Germany
Keywords:
Intracavity frequency doubling, Diode pumped lasers, Broadband solid-state laser gain media, Blue and ultraviolet sources, Cr:LiCAF
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