Abstract

A key problem in high power solid-state lasers is the thermal load created in the lasing material. This heat causes the reduction of both the laser output power and its beam quality. One approach to compete against this phenomena is to reduce the heat load itself for a given pump power by decreasing the gap, quantum defect, between the pump and the lase photons. Direct pumping of Nd:YAG at 885nm [1] and Nd:YVO₄ at 880nm [2], instead of the common pumping at 808nm, is an illustration of this approach.

© 2007 IEEE