Abstract

Semiconductor diode laser pumping of solid-state lasers has been of much recent interest because of the potential for high efficiency and good frequency stability. We report diode laser pumping of Nd:LiYF₄ (YLF). The output of this laser is naturally polarized as opposed to Nd:YAG and can provide larger amplified spontaneous emission limited single-pass gains in amplifiers than Nd:YAG. In addition, it can serve as a master oscillator to injection lock for silicate or phosphate glass systems. Oscillation was demonstrated in a monolithic device. For end pumping near 791 nm with a single stripe diode laser, threshold was 860 µW, and the slope efficiency was 15% with high reflecting and 99.7% reflecting cavity mirrors. At low pump powers, only the high gain polarization oscillated at 1.047 µm in a TEM₀₀ mode, but as the pump power was increased, the orthogonal polarization also oscillated at 1.053 µm output and increased the slope efficiency by increasing the output coupling. Further results are presented.

© 1985 Optical Society of America