Diode arrays, crystals, and thermal management for solid-statelasers

We summarize our efforts in the development of solid-state lasers, including the laser diode arrays, pump light delivery, approaches to thermal management, and novel gain media. Our interests are in developing unique solid-state lasers, including those operating at higher powers, offering less common wavelengths, and having other specialized features. In this paper, we discuss high-power Tm:YAG and Yb:YAG lasers. The gas cooled slab laser concept using Yb:S-FAP, and side-pumped Er:YAG and Cr:ZnSe lasers. We address the optical and thermal physics of these systems and also mention several additional gain media that have the potential of offering unique performance characteristics: Ce:LiSAF, APG-2 laser glass, Dy:LaCl₃, and Yb:BCBF     

The promise of cryogenic solid-state lasers

Cryogenic cooling of solid-state lasers has a number of important benefits, including the near vanishing of optical distortion in high average power lasers, as well as enhanced spectroscopic and lasing properties. These benefits are just beginning to be exploited to produce compact high average power lasers whose output is scalable, near diffraction limited, and whose efficiencies will exceed those of modern bulk solid-state lasers. In this paper, we review the history of cryogenically cooled solid-state lasers and the benefits of cryogenic cooling, including optical and laser properties and thermal and thermooptic properties; examine cryogenic amplifiers and cooling methods, including a straight-through propagation thin-disk configuration that does not perform well at room temperature, and summarize the experimental performance demonstrated to date. As a specific example, we examine the spectroscopic and lasing properties of Yb:YAG and show that compact high efficiency and high average power, near diffraction limited lasers (>100 kW) can be realized in the near future using presently available technology.     

Comparative Performance of Passively Q-Switched Diode-Pumped Yb 3+-Doped Tungstate and Garnet Lasers Using Cr 4+:YAG Saturable Absorber

We investigated the continuous wave (CW) free-running and repetitive modulation in the kilohertz frequency domain of a passively Q-switched diode-pumped Yb:YAG, Yb:GGG, and Yb:KYW lasers by using Cr⁴⁺:YAG as a saturable absorber. The results presented in this paper are focused on the design of a passively Q-switched Yb-doped garnets or Yb-doped tungstates microlasers. The free-running performance of Yb:YAG, Yb:GGG, Yb:KGW, and Yb:KYW were characterized, and experimental parameters such as gain and loss were evaluated. We carried out a fit between our experimental results and an existing numerical model, which relates the experimental and the physical parameters of the ytterbium diode-pumped system to the minimal threshold pumping power. The best performance among the laser crystals was obtained for Yb:YAG laser. A maximum peak power of ap4.5 kW at an average output power of 1.32 W was extracted with an extraction efficiency of ap25%.     

Diode-pumped tunable Yb:YAG miniature lasers at room temperature:modeling and experiment

We present a simple design rule for diode-laser pumped quasi-three-level lasers by using the M² factor. The validity of this model was demonstrated by diode-pumped Yb:YAG laser experiments. The maximum output power of 1.33 W and optical slope efficiency of 63% were obtained in a 400-μm Yb:YAG chip miniature laser. Using a 200-μm Yb:YAG chip, a 70% optical slope efficiency was reached. In a coupled-cavity configuration, with a quartz birefringent tuning filter, 8.2 THz (29 nm) of tuning was obtained at room temperature. By changing to a calcite birefringent filter, single-axial-mode oscillation with an output power of 500 mW was observed     

1.047-μm Yb:Sr5(PO4)3F energystorage optical amplifier

The pumping and gain properties of Yb³⁺-doped Sr₅ (PO₄)₃F (Yb:S-FAP) are reported. Using a tunable, free running 900-nm Cr:LiSAF oscillator as a pump source for a Yb:S-FAP rod, the saturation fluence for pumping was measured to be 2.2 J/cm² based on either the spatial, temporal, or energy transmission properties of the Yb:S-FAP rod. The emission peak of Yb:S-FAP (1047.5 nm in air) is shown to overlap with that of Nd:YLiF₄ (Nd:YLF) to within 0.1 nm, rendering Yb:S-FAP suitable as an effective power amplifier for Nd:YLF oscillators. The small signal gain, under varying pumping conditions, was measured with a cw Nd:YLF probe laser. These measurements implied emission cross sections of 6.0×10^-20 and 1.5×10^-20 cm ² for π and σ polarized light. Respectively, which fall within the error limits of the previously reported values of 7.3×10^-20 and 1.4×10^-20 cm² for π and σ polarized light, obtained from purely spectroscopic techniques. The effects of radiation trapping on the emission lifetime have been quantified and have been shown to lead to emission lifetimes as long as 1.7 ms, for large optically dense crystals. This is substantially larger than the measured intrinsic lifetime of 1.10 ms. Yb:S-FAP crystal boules up to 25×25×175 mm in size, which were grown for the above experiments and were found to have acceptable loss characteristics (<~1%/cm) and adequately large laser damage thresholds at 1064 nm (~20 J/cm² at 3 ns). Overall, diode-pumped Yb:S-FAP amplifiers are anticipated to offer a viable means of amplifying 1.047-μm light, and may be particularly well suited to applications sensitive to overall laser efficiencies, such as inertial confinement fusion energy applications     

Diode-pumped neodymium lasers repetitively Q-switched by Cr4+:YAG solid-state saturable absorbers

We report on the experimental results of a continuously diode-laser pumped Nd:YAG laser, operating at 1064 nm and repetitively Q-switched by a Cr⁴⁺:YAG solid-state saturable absorber. End-pumping the Nd:YAG with a 10-W fiber-coupled diode-laser we could either optimize the energy or the average output power, depending on the choice of the saturable absorber and the output coupler. The maximum energy was ≈200 μJ in single TEM₀₀, 17 ns pulses at 6 kHz, whereas a maximum average power of ≈2 W with 32-ns pulses at 20 kHz was obtained. We also present preliminary results of a repetitively Q-switched Nd:YVO₄ laser at 1064 nm. The repetitive Q-switching operation is described by an improved model, which accounts for the behavior of both the active medium and the solid-state saturable absorber. The results of the model agree fairly well with the experimental data. Experimental results of second harmonic conversion are also reported and interpreted using a depleted pump model     

Photothermal-induced temperature changes in a model inner ear: acomparison of visible, infrared, and ultraviolet lasers

The temperature change in a model cylindrical vestibule (90 mm³) was measured following irradiation by argon (488-514 nm), CO₂ (10.6 μm), KTP (Nd:YAG) (532 nm), Er:YAG (2.9 μm), and XeCl (308 nm) lasers. Otic capsule bone was used to simulate the otosclerotic stapes footplate, and the thickness of each specimen was machined to variable thicknesses (0.20-0.90 mm). Thermocouples were used to measure the temperature below the air-bone surface at depths of 1.0, 3.0, and 5.0 mm. The time-dependent temperature change, thermocouple position, and bone thickness were measured following single pulse application from argon, CO₂, and KTP (Nd-YAG) lasers. The effect of infrared and ultraviolet lasers on vestibule fluid temperature changes were studied with several fluence and pulse sequences. The temperature change in the vestibule following pulsed laser irradiation decreased with increasing bone thickness and thermocouple depth. Laser irradiation from CO₂, argon, KTP-532, XeCl, and Er:YAG lasers produced minimal (less than 5°) vestibule temperature changes. Measured temperatures were in good agreement with an analytic model, based on a solution to the bio-heat equation in semi-infinite media. The results are discussed with relevance to ear surgery     

High-power and high-efficiency operation of a CW-diode-side-pumpedNd:YAG rod laser

We have demonstrated high-power and high efficiency performance of a continuous-wave (CW) Nd:YAG laser with a simple and scalable side-pumping configuration. The maximum output power of 147 W was obtained in low brightness operation of M²=45. The corresponding electric efficiency is 14.8%. To our knowledge, this is the highest value reported for diode side-pumped Nd:YAG lasers. By using a rate and photon transport calculation, we have estimated the pumping efficiency of 72%. High brightness operation was also carried out by applying bifocusing compensation of the Nd:YAG rod. The brightness of 272 MW/cm² sr with beam quality of M²=5.9 and output power of 107 W was obtained at the electric efficiency of 11.6%. The brightness and the electric efficiency are comparable with those of industrial high-power CO₂ lasers that have been the first option for industrial applications     

Influence of thermal effect on output power optimization infiber-coupled laser-diode end-pumped lasers

A general model has been developed for the output power optimization of fiber-coupled laser-diode end-pumped lasers by including the thermal effect into the analysis. The optical path difference (OPD). Distribution has been derived as a function of the pump-beam quality, focus position of pumping light, and pump radius at the focal plane under the assumption that the end faces of the crystal are thermally insulated. With the derived OPD, the diffraction losses arising from thermal-induced spherical aberration have been estimated by the Strehl intensity ratio. The practical example of an Nd:YVO₄ laser pumped by a 1.2-W fiber-coupled laser diode is considered to illustrate the utility of the present model. Experimental results have shown a fairly good agreement with the theoretical predictions     

An inexpensive light source for oncologic photodynamic therapy

The introduction of photochemistry for diagnosis and therapy of several cancers has been a major contribution of modern medicine in recent years. The rationale behind this technique is old and simple: administration of a photosensitizer with high affinity to cancer cells and reactive to irradiation of appropriated wavelengths to produce singlet oxygen (¹O₂), which causes peroxidation of cell organelles and apoptosis. The main reason this technique has not gained widespread diffusion can be attributed to the high costs and technical difficulties of tunable argon-dye lasers and gold vapor lasers used as irradiation source. To overcome this problem, the authors' Biotechnology Department has built a simple and inexpensive incoherent light source, which was successfully tested on skin and other cancers. This source consists of a 400-W arc lamp filled with a special gas mixture that delivers a cold monochromatic beam at 630 nm wavelength after appropriate filtering through a bandpass interference filter. The power delivered by this device varies proportionally (70-150 mW/cm² ) to the distance from the target (about 20 mW/cm² per cm from the flange), with a working area of about 25 cm². The light is concentrated with reflectors and focused at the window with properly aligned mirrors. The lamp housing is cooled by forced air distributed through appropriate vents     

Miniaturization and Power Scaling of Fundamental Mode Optically Pumped Semiconductor Lasers

We demonstrate that TEM₀₀ mode optically pumped semiconductor lasers (OPSLs) may be scaled to tens of watts in the visible wavelength range using laser cavities an order of magnitude smaller than those of conventional solid-state lasers. In particular, we show that the output power may be scaled linearly by increasing the number of optically pumped semiconductor (OPS) devices and derive a unique solution for a dynamically stable resonator that is independent of the physical cavity length and internal design. This enables miniaturization of high-power OPS lasers to ~1 cm footprints without compromising many resonator performance metrics. The results are applied to demonstrate a 15-mm footprint cavity producing 7.3-W output at 486 nm, and a cavity with two OPS chips with 24-W output at 561 nm. In addition, we show that efficient TEM₀₀ mode performance may be realized using free-space-coupled, high-power laser diode bars. Single-frequency operation is also demonstrated, and an rms noise level less than 0.01% is achieved.     

Breakdown mechanism of liquid nitrogen viewed from area and volumeeffects

We investigated the area and volume effects on the breakdown strength in liquid nitrogen (LN₂) to discuss the breakdown mechanism in cryogenic liquids for superconducting power apparatus. We measured breakdown voltages in LN₂ with and without thermal bubbles over a very wide range of the electrode size. Experimental results revealed that the breakdown mechanism changed from an area dominant to volume effective region at larger electrode configurations in LN₂. Moreover, we discussed the contribution rate of area and volume effects to the breakdown strength in LN₂. It was suggested that a mutual contribution of area and volume effects appeared in breakdown characteristics in LN₂ under thermal bubble conditions, as a phenomenon peculiar to cryogenic liquids. Consequently, we pointed out that it is very important to consider both thermal bubbles and electrode surface condition for HV insulation of superconducting power apparatus     

Yb:YAG absorption at ambient and cryogenic temperatures

We have performed absorption measurements and generated absorption cross sections as a function of wavelength for the laser material YAG doped with ytterbium at 300, 175, and 75 K. This data was generated to enable a direct comparison of the absorption intensity and linewidths at room and cryogenic temperatures, and in particular near the temperature of liquid nitrogen at 77 K. The data have been used to compute universal absorption contour plots that display absorption as a function of the incident light center wavelength and optical thickness (doping density times penetration depth) for a number of bandwidths, and assuming that the spectrum of the incident light can be described as a Gaussian. Curves are presented for both 300 and 75 K, and may be used to optimize the absorption and laser efficiency.     

CW and mode-locked integrated extended cavity lasers fabricatedusing impurity free vacancy disordering

A phosphorus-doped silica (P:SiO₂) cap containing 5 wt% P has been demonstrated to inhibit the bandgap shifts of p-i-n and n-i-p GaAs-AlGaAs quantum-well laser structures during rapid thermal processing. Bandgap shift differences as large as 100 meV have been observed between samples capped with SiO₂ and with P:SiO₂. The technique has been used to fabricate GaAs-AlGaAs ridge lasers with integrated transparent waveguides. With a selective differential blue-shift of 30 nm in the absorption edge, devices with 400 μm/2.73-mm-long active/passive sections exhibited an average threshold current of 9 mA in continuous-wave (CW) operation, only 2.2 mA higher than that of discrete lasers of the same active length and from the same chip. Extended cavity mode-locked lasers were also investigated and compared to all active devices. For the extended cavity device, the threshold current is a factor of 3-5 lower, the pulsewidth is reduced from 10.3 to 3.5 ps and there is a decrease in the free-running jitter level from 15 ps (measurement bandwidth 10 kHz-10 MHz) to 6 ps. In addition, the extended cavity lasers do not exhibit any self-pulsing modulation of the mode-locked pulse train, unlike the all-active lasers, and the optical spectra indicate that the pulses are more linearly chirped     

Transmission properties of hollow glass waveguides for the deliveryof CO2 surgical laser power

Hollow glass waveguides are an attractive fiber delivery system for a broad range of infrared wavelengths, including the 3-μm Er:YAG and 10.6 μm CO₂ lasers. The losses for these waveguides are as low as 0.1 dB/m at the 10.6-μm wavelength for waveguides with a 700-μm bore. The guides are suitable for delivering laser powers well in excess of 100 W. Continuous power delivery for over 250 h is possible for powers less than 35 W. When stored under normal laboratory conditions, the loss is seen to change only slightly over a period up to two years     

Cr4+ lasers: present performance and prospects for newhost lattices

Cr-doped lasers, based on forsterite and YAG, provide broadly tunable power in the 1.25-μm and 1.45-μm regions. Performance data on tuning range, pumping, output power, and thermal management for these lasers is reviewed. Potential new crystals for Cr⁴⁺ should have heavy atoms to reduce lattice phonon frequencies, a distorted tetrahedral cage for the Cr⁴⁺ ion, and possibly an octahedral site for Cr³⁺. Possible materials include monticellite and diopside     

High-power VCSELs: single devices and densely packed 2-D-arrays

We report on vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) and laser arrays providing high output powers in the 980-nm wavelength regime. Extensive investigations on size scaling behavior of single top- and bottom-emitting devices concerning fundamental electrooptical and thermal properties show limits of attainable output characteristics. Maximum experimentally achieved continuous-wave (CW) optical output powers at room temperature are 180 and 350 mW for top- and bottom-emitting VCSELs, respectively. Detailed analysis on the thermal interaction between closely spaced elements have been carried out to describe the thermally induced power limitations of two-dimensional arrays. Fabricated heat sunk bottom-emitting arrays of 23 elements and 40-μm aperture size of individual elements show output powers of 0.56 W CW at room temperature and 0.8 W actively cooled, resulting in 0.33 kW/cm² and 0.47 kW/cm² maximum spatially averaged optical power density, respectively     

Diode-pumped grazing incidence slab lasers

Diode-pumped grazing incidence slab (GISL) lasers, and materials which may be used with this configuration, are discussed. Of the materials investigated so far, Nd:YVO₄ has been shown to yield high efficiency and high small-signal gain, and a compact, 1-kHz repetition rate laser, using a Nd:YVO₄ slab has generated 3-ns duration, millijoule pulses with high beam quality. A numerical model for GISL lasers has been developed and used to simulate a hybrid Nd:YVO₄/Nd:YAG oscillator. A preliminary, experimental investigation of such a hybrid system has yielded results that are consistent with the model predictions     

Effects of well number on temperature characteristics in 1.3-μmAlGaInAs-InP quantum-well lasers

Effects of well number on temperature characteristics have been investigated in 1.3-μm AlGaInAs-InP compressively strained multiple-quantum-well lasers. Well-number dependence of threshold currents (I_th), external quantum efficiencies (η_d ), characteristic temperatures of I_th and η_d arid maximum operation temperatures have been experimentally determined and analyzed. The characteristic temperature of the threshold current (T₀) and the maximum operation temperature (T_max ) were found to increase with increasing the number of quantum wells and a record high pulsed T_max of 220°C has been achieved in lasers with ten wells. In contrast, the characteristic temperature of the external efficiency (T_η) was found to decrease with increasing the number of wells. Because of this opposite well-number dependence of the T₀ and T_η, each of them alone is not necessarily a good measure to optimize the number of wells. Therefore, in this work, me also evaluated a power reduction at a constant current with increasing temperature, which depends on both T₀ and T_η and thus should be a more practical measure of the temperature characteristics, and discuss the optimum number of the quantum wells     

Fiber-Laser-Pumped Er:YAG Lasers

Hybrid fiber-laser-pumped solid-state lasers exploit high-power cladding-pumped fiber lasers for direct (in-band) pumping of a crystal-based solid-state laser to reduce heating in the laser crystal, and hence allow scaling to higher power in both continuous-wave (CW) and pulsed modes of operation. In this paper, we briefly review the attractions of the hybrid laser approach for generation of output in the ~ 1.6 mum wavelength regime and consider the main design considerations for efficient operation of hybrid lasers based on Er:YAG in both CW and pulsed modes of operation. Examples of hybrid Er:YAG lasers, pumped by Er,Yb codoped fiber lasers at 1532 nm, with CW output powers up to 60 W at 1645 nm and 31 W at 1617 nm and slope efficiencies of 80% and 47% with respect to incident pump power, respectively, are described. In Q-switched mode of operation, pulse energies up to 30.5 mJ were obtained, limited by coating damage. Finally, the prospects for further increase in output power and improvement in overall performance in CW and Q-switched modes of operation will be discussed.