Diode-pumped Nd:YVO4/Yb:SFAP laser emitting at 985 and 492.5nm

Published in Optics Letters in 2008, this paper reports the first demonstration of intracavity pumping of a Yb:S-FAP crystal by a Nd:YVO4 laser operating at 914 nm. The scheme exploits the three-level transition of Yb:S-FAP at 985 nm — normally difficult to achieve efficiently due to reabsorption losses — by using the intense intracavity field of the Nd:YVO4 pump laser to overcome threshold. With 1.4 W of output at 985 nm and 120 mW at 492.5 nm via intracavity second-harmonic generation, this work extended Oxxius’s portfolio of compact visible and near-IR laser architectures beyond conventional Nd-doped systems.

The 492.5 nm wavelength sits adjacent to the standard 488 nm excitation line used in flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy, making this architecture relevant for applications requiring fine spectral control in the blue-green range. This research contributes to the broader Oxxius expertise in nonlinear frequency conversion and intracavity pumping schemes that underpin the current CW & Modulated Laser product line.

Abstract

For the first time, to the best of our knowledge,  Yb:S-FAP crystals have been intracavity pumped by a Nd:YVO4 laser at 914nm. This original pumping scheme allows efficient laser action on the three-level transition at 985 nm with 1.4W output power. Second-harmonic generation is also presented with a total output power of 120 mW at 492.5 nm.