Room-temperature cw operation of an efficient miniaturized Nd:YAG laser end-pumped by a superluminescent diode

Abstract

A miniaturized Nd:YAG laser is described, in which a 3-mm-diam×5.4-mm-long laser rod is end-pumped by a single AlxGa1−xAs superluminescent diode (SLD) having 20-μm×1.4-nm stripe geometry. A 4.5-mW laser power was obtained at room temperature in a 1-ms pulse operation. Emitted power from the SLD was 50 mW with 1.7% external power efficiency. When continuously pumped, a 1.5-mW laser power was obtained at room temperature.