Femtosecond laser micromachined ridge waveguide lasers in Nd:YAG ceramics

• First Nd:YAG ceramic ridge waveguides by ion implantation and femtosecond laser ablation.
• Enhancement of lasing performance in Nd:YAG ceramic ridge waveguides to planar ones.
• Presentation of a new method to form ridge waveguides in laser ceramics.

We report on the fabrication of ridge waveguides in Nd:YAG ceramic by using femtosecond laser micromachining of the surface of a He ion implanted planar waveguide. Under optical pump of 808 nm light, continuous wave waveguide lasers have been realized at 1.06 μm at room temperature in the Nd:YAG ceramic ridge waveguide system, reaching a maximum output power of 46 mW. The lasing threshold of ∼64.9 mW and the slope efficiency of 42.5% are obtained for the ridge waveguide system, which shows superior lasing performance to the Nd:YAG ceramic planar waveguide.