High-power wavelength-tunable and power-ratio-controllable dual-wavelength operation at 1319 nm and 1338 nm in a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser

Abstract

We report the first demonstration on three types of 1.3 μm spectral region in a Q -switched Nd:YAG laser. In order to dissipate the heat deposition effectively to obtain good beam quality, the Nd:YAG rod crystal with 1° cut-angle on end faces is side-pumped by the quasi-continuous-wave pulsed laser diode. A Suprasil etalon is well designed as the intracavity mode-selector to obtain wavelength-tunable single line or power-ratio-controllable dual line operation at 1319 nm and 1338 nm. With the pump pulse width of 200 μs and pump power of 410 W, the acousto-optic Q -switched laser delivered a pulse width of 117 ns at 400 Hz repetition rate, and the M 2 factor was measured to be about 1.87. 1319 nm together with 1338 nm single-wavelength laser achieved an average output power of 47.6 W and 39.9 W with a linewidth of 0.48 nm and 0.32 nm, and a tunable range of 111.2 pm and 108.6 pm, respectively. Among dual-wavelength oscillation, both lines can be tuned at almost equal intensity level with 45.7 W total output power, which is input into an LBO crystal to generate red light of 11.4 W for 659 nm, 6.7 W for 664 nm, and 7.5 W for 669 nm. The 1.3 μm wavelength-selectable operation realized by using the same laser configuration may enhance the application in the fields of tunable lasers and THz frequency generation.