The power scaling of an all-solid-state visible laser is limited by the mode-to-pump ratio related to the thermal effect based on the spatial rate equation. The mode-to-pump ratio is also known as the overlap efficiency factor (OEF). We investigated the thermal effect as a function of pump power, the waist radius of pump beams, and the waist position of pump beams and have simulated the three-dimensional distribution of the OEF as a variable of the waist position and size of pump beams. Also, it is seen that the calculated optimal OEF under a plane–concave cavity is a decreasing function of input pump power, and it is less than unity in the case of high pump power. The practical example of a Pr:YLF laser pumped by 9-W fiber-coupled laser diodes confirms our theoretical analysis. The output power instability was < ± 1 . 625 % (RMS) within 1 h. In addition, by changing the cavity length to 38 mm, the output power of 607 nm is up to 103 mW with an OEF of 0.741. |
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Crystals
Thermal effects
Laser crystals
Semiconductor lasers
Mirrors
Optical engineering
Optical simulations