A diode-side-pumped, high-energy, high-beam-quality, pulsed solid-state Nd3+:Y3Al5O12 (Nd:YAG) laser with a thermoelectric cooler (TEC) is investigated in this study. The pump laser was a pulsed laser diode array with maximum peak power of 15 kW. A 350 mJ laser pulse was obtained with a wavelength of 1064 nm, a pulse duration of 10 ns, a total electrical-to-optical efficiency of 7.5%, a relative stability of output energy of 5%, and a beam quality of M2 < 4.
We developed a high-power, double-intracavity-frequency, diode-side-pumped, Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. The thermal birefringence effect of Nd:YAG crystal was compensated by a quartz rotating mirror, and the stable cavity structure was designed according to the thermal focal length of a single module. A 532 nm laser with a maximum linearly polarized output power of 96 W was obtained at a pumping power of 1300 W and repetition rate of 10 kHz. The pulse width was 55.8 ns, and the beam quality was measured to be M2x = 5.98, M2y = 8.14 at the maximum output power; therefore, a brightness as high as 6.97 × 108 W·cm−2·Sr was achieved. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest brightness obtained for a high-power Nd:YAG laser at 532 nm.
Cylindrical vector beams (CVBs) are the product of polarization modulation of optical fields, and possess both unique focusing characteristics and excellent properties applicable to machining, imaging, communication and other fields. Mode selection couplers comprise a promising new method to realize the long-term stable output of cylindrical vector beam all-fiber lasers. Mode selection couplers have the advantages of a simple structure, high mode conversion efficiency and high mode purity. However, the production process of conventional asymmetric mode selection couplers is more complicated. Therefore, in this paper, a symmetric two-mode coupler with a 1 μm band is designed and fabricated using the finite element method, beam propagation method and fused pull-cone method, and a set of all-fiber passive mode-locked lasers based on symmetric dual-mode couplers are constructed. Finally, we obtain cylindrical vector beam outputs with central wavelengths of 1038.97 nm/1067.72 nm, a repetition rate of 8.78 MHz, pulse durations of 660 ps/656 ps, maximum average powers of 5.25 mW/5.2 mW, and the high mode purity of TM (transverse magnetic)01 mode and TE (transverse electric)01 mode is 97.18% and 97.07%, respectively.
In response to the demand for high-power, long-pulse-width 532 nm lasers in the medical and industrial processing fields, this paper explains how the laser cavity of a high-power Nd:YAG 532 nm laser can be extended while maintaining the laser’s q-parameter by using a 4f optical system. The results show that at a repetition rate of 10 kHz, the extended cavity achieved a maximum average power of 112 W. Compared with the short cavity, the power was not significantly reduced. The pulse width was extended from 56 ns to 85 ns, and its broadening ratio reached 46.5%. The laser maintained good beam quality during high-power operation.
The multi-dithering method has been well verified in the phase-locking of polarization coherent combination experiments. However, it is difficult to apply to low repetition rate pulsed laser coherent combination, since there exists an overlap in the frequency domain between the pulse laser and the large amplitude-phase noise resulting in traditional filters being unable to effectively separate the phase noise. Aiming to solve the problem, we propose, to the best of our knowledge, a novel method of pulse noise detection, identification, and filtering based on the autocorrelation characteristics between noise signals. The self-designed adaptive window filtering algorithm can effectively filter the pulse signal doped in the phase noise around 0.1 ms. After the pulses are filtered out, the remaining phase noise signal is used as the input signal of the multi-dithering method for phase locking; the phase difference of two pulsed beams (10 kHz) is successfully compensated to zero; and the coherent combination of the closed-loop phase lock is realized. Simultaneously, the phase correction periods are short, the phase lock effect is stable, and the intensity of the final combined pulses rises to the ideal value ( ). In addition, the adaptive window filtering algorithm we proposed can be applied to the coherent combined system of large array fiber lasers and further lay the foundation for fiber phased array lidar.