Abstract

We describe here what is, to the best of our knowledge, the first LED pumped $\mathrm{Nd}\text{:}{\mathrm{YVO}}_4$ laser. Near-IR LED arrays with a wavelength centered close to 850 nm were used to pump transversely the crystal. By pulsing LEDs, with a duration of the order of the laser transition lifetime, we obtained sufficient pump intensities to reach the laser threshold. At a frequency of 250 Hz, we obtained an output energy of 40 μJ at 1064 nm for an input pump energy of 7.4 mJ, which corresponds to an optical efficiency of 0.5%. Experimental results of small signal gain are compared with theoretical analysis.

© 2014 Optical Society of America

Direct amplification of a nanosecond laser diode in a high gain diode-pumped Nd:YVO₄ amplifier

Xavier Délen, François Balembois, and Patrick Georges
Opt. Lett. 39(4) 997-1000 (2014)

Diode-pumped simultaneously Q-switched and mode-locked YVO₄/Nd:YVO₄/YVO₄ crystal self-Raman first-Stokes laser

Guoxi Huang, Yongqin Yu, Xiaohua Xie, Yufeng Zhang, and Chenlin Du
Opt. Express 21(17) 19723-19731 (2013)

Efficient RTP-based OPO intracavity pumped by an acousto-optic Q-switched Nd:YVO₄ laser

Yanmin Duan, Haiyong Zhu, Yanlin Ye, Dong Zhang, Ge Zhang, and Dingyuan Tang
Opt. Lett. 39(5) 1314-1317 (2014)

Second-Stokes YVO₄/Nd:YVO₄/YVO₄self-frequency Raman laser

Weidong Chen, Yong Wei, Chenghui Huang, Xiaolei Wang, Hongyuan Shen, Suya Zhai, Shan Xu, Bingxuan Li, Zhenqiang Chen, and Ge Zhang
Opt. Lett. 37(11) 1968-1970 (2012)

TEM₀₀ surface-emitting laser-diode longitudinally pumped Nd:YVO₄ laser

Gilles Feugnet, Muriel Schwarz, Christian Larat, and Jean Paul Pocholle
Opt. Lett. 18(24) 2114-2116 (1993)