Abstract
Results of a detailed experimental study aimed at reducing the thermal loading effects in room-temperature continuous-wave Cr4+:forsterite lasers are presented. By using a Nd:YAG pump laser operated at 1.06 μm, the effect of the absorption coefficient and crystal cross-sectional area on the power performance of three crystals was compared between 12 and 36 °C. Experiments indicated that a low differential absorption coefficient significantly reduces the pump-induced thermal effects and cavity losses that would otherwise give rise to inefficient operation and increased temperature sensitivity. In particular, a Cr4+:forsterite crystal with an absorption coefficient of 0.57 cm-1 yielded as much as 900 mW of output power at 1.26 μm and a crystal temperature of 15 °C with an incident pump power of only 7.6 W. To the author’s knowledge, the demonstrated slope efficiency of 30% represents the highest continuous-wave power performance reported to date from this laser system at elevated temperatures.
© 1998 Optical Society of America
Full Article | PDF ArticleMore Like This
Alphan Sennaroglu
Appl. Opt. 37(6) 1062-1067 (1998)
Alphan Sennaroglu and Baris Pekerten
Opt. Lett. 23(5) 361-363 (1998)
Anatoliy Ivanov, Vladislav Shcheslavskiy, Vladislav Yakovlev, Boris Minkov, and Alexander Vasiliev
Appl. Opt. 40(33) 6034-6037 (2001)