High-energy high-efficiency Nd:YLF laser end-pump by 808Â nm diode

A model is developed to calculate the optimal pump position for end-pump configuration. The 808 nm wing pump is employed to spread the absorption inside the crystal. By the optimal laser cavity design, a high-energy high-efficiency Nd:YLF laser operating at 1053 nm is presented. In cw operation, a 13.6 W power is obtained with a slope efficiency of 51% with respect to 30 W incident pump power. The beam quality is near diffraction limited with M2∼ 1.02. In Q-switch operation, a pulse energy of 5 mJ is achieved with a peak power of 125 kW at 1 kHz repetition rate.