Open Access944 mJ Nd:YAG planar waveguide laser amplifier with the optical to optical efficiency of 52%
Author(s) -
Jun Wang,
LianHua Xu,
Y. Chen,
Zhaohui Wu,
Tangjian Zhou,
D. Wang,
Lixin Tong,
X. Wang,
Qingsong Gao,
Chun Tang
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.24.022661
Subject(s) - optics , materials science , laser , amplifier , waveguide , slope efficiency , optical amplifier , planar , optoelectronics , pulse duration , fiber laser , physics , computer graphics (images) , cmos , computer science
We demonstrated a quasi-continuous wave (QCW) Nd:YAG planar waveguide laser amplifier with the single pulse output energy of 944 mJ. At the pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of 100 Hz, 1064 nm seed laser was coupled into the planar waveguide laser amplifier with the single pulse energy of 128 mJ and the pulse duration of 192 μs. With the total pump energy of 1582 mJ, the extracted energy of 816 mJ was obtained, leading to an optical to optical efficiency of 52% and an electrical to optical efficiency of 28%. To the best our knowledge, it is up to now the highest efficiency and output energy in Nd:YAG planar waveguide laser amplifier reported. At the maximum output, the beam quality factors M2 were measured to be 3.44 and 4.81 in the guided direction and unguided direction respectively, and the polarization degree was 98.6%. Higher average power could be obtained with the better performance of seeder oscillator.