Abstract

Femtosecond- (fs-) laser pulses are recognized nowadays as an important tool for realizing optical devices in many materials. A change of the refractive index appears in the region were the laser pulse interacts with the material. Based on this effect, waveguides were inscribed in various laser media, like Nd:Y₃Al₅O₁₂ (Nd:YAG) and Yb:YAG, Nd:YVO₄ and Nd:GdVO₄, Pr:YLiF₄ and Pr:SrAl₁₂O₁₉, or mid-infrared emitting Tm and Cr:ZnS media [1,2]. Continuous-wave (cw) emission was obtained from these waveguides, using in principal the pump with Ti:sapphire lasers. In this work we report on realization of depressed cladding waveguides in Nd:YAG (single crystals and ceramics) and in Nd:YVO₄ by a classical (step-by-step translation) fs-laser writing method; furthermore, a new (helical moving of the medium) inscribing technique is proposed. Cw laser emission at 1.06 µm was achieved from these waveguides under the pump with a fiber-coupled diode laser.

© 2015 IEEE