Abstract

Pulsed, tunable, visible solid state lasers are being developed for applications in LIDAR and biomedicine. Second harmonic generation (SHG) of all-solid-state infrared vibronic lasers is emerging as an attractive alternative approach to OPOs when compact and efficient devices are required. SHG of Ti:sapphire has been widely reported for tunable blue and ultraviolet lasers, and operation at longer visible wavelengths has been achieved by SHG of gain-switched Cr⁴⁺ doped forsterite and YAG lasers. Recent demonstrations by a number of authors, including ourselves,^1,2 have extended the operating range of these Cr⁴⁺ lasers from 10s of Hz to the kHz repetition rates needed for many applications. Here we report for the first time, to our knowledge, intra-cavity SHG of an all-solid-state forsterite laser for high repetition rate visible wavelength operation. Conversion efficiencies are higher than those previously reported for lamp-pumped systems¹, and more than six times those reported recently for extra-cavity SHG².

© 2000 IEEE