Beam quality improvement by gain guiding effect in end-pumped Nd:YVO₄ laser amplifiers

In end-pumped Nd:YVO₄ amplifiers, beam quality improvement is obtained both in theory and in experiments. A theoretical model of gain-guided laser amplifier is developed by comprehensively considering thermal effect, gain guiding and gain saturation effect. Several key parameters of the amplifier ar...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optics express 2011-10, Vol.19 (21), p.21060-21073
Main Authors: Xiang, Zhen, Wang, Dan, Pan, Sunqiang, Dong, Yantao, Zhao, Zhigang, Li, Tong, Ge, Jianhong, Liu, Chong, Chen, Jun
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:In end-pumped Nd:YVO₄ amplifiers, beam quality improvement is obtained both in theory and in experiments. A theoretical model of gain-guided laser amplifier is developed by comprehensively considering thermal effect, gain guiding and gain saturation effect. Several key parameters of the amplifier are discussed such as the input beam quality, the beam filling factor between input beam and pump beam, the ratio between input power and pump power, and the length of laser crystal. The theoretical results are confirmed by the experiments.
ISSN:1094-4087
DOI:10.1364/OE.19.021060