High-performance wavelength-locked diode lasers

Rapidly maturing industrial laser applications are placing ever-tighter constraints on spectral width and wavelength emission stability over varying operating temperatures of high power diode laser pump sources. For example, improved power scaling and efficiency can be achieved by pumping the narrow upper laser level of Nd:YAG solid state lasers at 885 nm and the 1532-nm absorption band of Er:YAG solid state lasers, though taking full advantage of these configurations requires wavelength-locked pump sources. nLIGHT offers a wide variety of wavelength-locked diode products based on external volume grating optics technology. It is often believed that the use of external gratings to wavelength lock diode lasers leads to an unavoidable loss in power and efficiency. nLIGHT's design methodology is shown to eliminate the problem in our grating-locked diode laser products. These results are expected to enable improved performance in diode-pumped solid state and fiber laser systems.