PRANAB K MUKHOPADHYAY, JOGY GEORGE, S K SHARMA, P K GUPTA* and T P S NATHAN

Diode Pumped Solid State Laser Group; * Biomedical Applications Section, Center for Advanced Technology, Indore 452 013, India

Email: pkm@cat.ernet.in

Abstract.

Operational characteristics of a dual gain single cavity Nd:YVO₄ laser have been investigated. With semiconductor diode laser pump power of 2 W, 800 mW output was obtained with a slope efficiency of 49%. Further, by changing the relative orientation of the two crystals the polarization characteristics of the output could be varied. In particular by keeping the two Nd:YVO₄ crystals with their c-axes orthogonal to each other and adjusting the gain of the crystals so that both operate at approximately the same power level, completely unpolarized beams could be obtained.  

Keywords:  Dual gain single cavity laser; thermal lens; diode pumping; depolarization effect.

Pacs Nos.  42.60.Lh; 42.60.Da; 42.60.By; 42.55.Rz