Abstract

We report on diode laser side-pumped, high power, cw Nd:YAG rod lasers. The potential of these lasers in t e m of cw output power and beam quality has been fully exploited applying fiber-coupled diode lasers as pump sources, because these devices provide the greatest possible flexibility to influence the distribution of absorbed pump power inside the laseractive medium and hence the thermooptical effects. Accompanied by an extensive modelling of these effects, efficient and reliable cw Nd:YAG lasers were realized with output powers up to 750 W in multimode, 80 W in TEM₀₀ mode and 45 W in single-frequency operation.

© 1997 Optical Society of America