High-power laser with Nd:YAG single-crystal fiber grown by micro-pulling down technique

Damien Sangla; Nicolas Aubry; Julien Didierjean; Didier Perrodin; François Balembois; Kheirredine Lebbou; Alain Brenier; Patrick Georges; Jean Marie Fourmigue; Olivier Tillement

doi:10.1117/12.762747

5 March 2008 High-power laser with Nd:YAG single-crystal fiber grown by micro-pulling down technique

Damien Sangla, Nicolas Aubry, Julien Didierjean, Didier Perrodin, François Balembois, Kheirredine Lebbou, Alain Brenier, Patrick Georges, Jean Marie Fourmigue, Olivier Tillement

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 6871, Solid State Lasers XVII: Technology and Devices; 68710X (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.762747
Event: Lasers and Applications in Science and Engineering, 2008, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

We designed single-crystal fibers to combine excellent spectroscopic and thermo-mechanical properties of bulk crystals and ability of pump guiding and good heat repartition of doped glass fibers. Such single-crystal fibers of excellent optical quality were grown by the micro-pulling-down technique. A remarkable advantage of this technique is that pump guiding is achieved in the directly grown fiber without additional polishing on the cylinder. We designed 0.2%-Nd doped YAG crystal fibers sample of 50 mm and 1 mm diameter and AR coated on both end faces. It was longitudinally pumped by a fiber-coupled laser diode with a maximum output power of 120 W at 808 nm. Laser emission at 1064 nm was achieved inside a two concave mirrors cavity. We obtained 20 W of laser emission with a M² quality factor of 6, for an incident pump power of 120 W and a slope efficiency of 18% without any thermal management problems. Besides, a power of 16 W with linearly polarized laser emission has been obtained under the same pump power by introducing a thin plate polarizer in the cavity. An acousto-optical modulator was inserted inside the cavity and 360 kW of peak power with 12 ns pulses at 1 kHz repetition rate were achieved under 60 W of pump power. This work shows real improvements of laser performances in directly grown single crystal fibers. A complete thermal study confirms a good heat management and demonstrates scalability to high average power laser sources.

Citation Download Citation

Damien Sangla, Nicolas Aubry, Julien Didierjean, Didier Perrodin, François Balembois, Kheirredine Lebbou, Alain Brenier, Patrick Georges, Jean Marie Fourmigue, and Olivier Tillement "High-power laser with Nd:YAG single-crystal fiber grown by micro-pulling down technique", Proc. SPIE 6871, Solid State Lasers XVII: Technology and Devices, 68710X (5 March 2008); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.762747

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