Frequency-stabilized, 10-W continuous-wave, laser-diode end-pumped, injection-locked Nd:YAG laser

Abstract

We describe an efficient and highly stable injection-locked, laser-diode end-pumped cw Nd:YAG laser. With 22.3-W pump input from two fiber-coupled laser diodes, combined with 700 mW of power injected by a singlefrequency master laser, the injection-locked slave laser emits 10 W of linearly polarized, TEM(00)-mode output in a single longitudinal mode. In addition to high efficiency, the injection-locked laser also possesses excellent output stability. At 300 Hz, the measured relative intensity noise and the frequency-noise spectral density are 2 x 10(-5)/ radicalHz and 50 Hz/ radicalHz, respectively. To improve frequency stability further, we lock the frequency of the injection-locked laser to an external high-finesse reference cavity. When the frequency was stabilized, a minimum frequency-noise spectral density of 40 mHz/ radicalHz was measured at the frequency-stabilization loop error point at 1 kHz.