Influence of external cavity length on multimode hopping in microchip Nd:YAG lasers

The influence of external cavity length on multimode hopping in microchip Nd:YAG lasers is investigated experimentally. With an optical feedback loop, the threshold gain of different longitudinal modes are all modulated by changing the external cavity length; a lambda/2 change in the external cavity length causes a one-period oscillation. The longitudinal modes can be divided into groups according to different initial threshold gain variations and modulation trends corresponding to different external cavity phases. Because of the initial gain difference, only one mode in each group is the dominant potential lasing mode, while others are suppressed. During the 2 pi change of the external cavity phase, mode hopping occurs among these potential lasing modes from different groups. Both the intensity waveforms and the number of hopping modes strongly depend on the external cavity length. Experimental results agree well with the theoretical analysis of the phenomenon of multimode hopping subjected to optical feedback in microchip Nd:YAG lasers.