ANALYTICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF COMPOSITE SOLID-STATE LASER RODS IN DIODE-END-PUMPED GEOMETRY

In this paper, we report analytical and experimental studies on the ch aracteristics of end-pumped composite laser rods with undoped end, usi ng mainly Nd:YAG rods as an example, It is found that the peak tempera ture rise ill a composite rod decreases to <70% of that in a noncompos ite crystal, Thermal stress is dramatically reduced to <60% by employi ng the composite rod structure. We also demonstrate high-power operati on of the diode-end-pumped composite Nd:YVO4 rod and a maximum CW outp ut power of 9.3 W was achieved, which is about 1.5 times higher than t hat in the noncomposite rod, This high-power performance of the compos ite rod is primarily attributed to the reduction of thermal stress ins ide the rod.