Single-stripe diode-laser-pumped operation of a continuous-wave 946-nm Nd:YAG laser with less than 10-mW threshold has been demonstrated. A slope efficiency of 16% near threshold was shown with a projected slope efficiency well above a threshold of 34% based on results under Rhodamine 6G dye-laser pumping. Nonlinear crystals for second-harmonic generation of this source were evaluated. KNbO(3) ...

A diode-end-pumped passively mode-locked femtosecond Tm-doped calcium lithium niobium gallium garnet (Tm:CLNGG) disordered crystal laser was demonstrated for the first time to our knowledge. With a 790 nm laser diode pumping, stable CW mode-locking operation was obtained by using a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror. The disordered crystal laser generated mode-locked pulses as short as 479...

The Department of Defense (DoD) is spending millions of dollars on many Directed Energy (DE) programs. One of the programs, known as the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL), requires the use of a high-energy laser in order to destroy ground targets from a standard C-130H aircraft. The ATL, which is still not fully operational and battle field ready, presents a great amount of potential for maintainin...

A ytterbium-doped silica microcavity laser demonstrates stable laser emission while completely submerged in water. To our knowledge, it is the first solid-state laser whose cavity mode interacts with water. The device generates more than 2 microW of output power. The laser performance is presented, and low-concentration biosensing is discussed as a potential application.

The design and initial operation of a vertical square He-Ne ring laser G0 with a perimeter of 14 m is discussed. This builds on earlier demonstrations of the feasibility of large ring lasers (perimeter approximately 4 m) for single-mode gyroscope operation and with lesser pulling than navigation gyroscopes. With servoing of the rf excitation to yield single-mode operation, G0 gave a quality fac...

Ti:sapphire is an attractive laser medium for the development of miniature lasers with widely tunable output (650-1100 nm). However, due to its low peak emission cross section and short fluorescence lifetime, high pump power densities are required to achieve efficient CW lasing. A route to address this problem is to adopt channel waveguide geometries, which are characterized by lower laser thre...

Femtosecond mode-locked operation is demonstrated for the first time, to our knowledge, with a Yb:SrF(2) crystal. The shortest pulse duration is 143 fs for an average power of 450 mW. The highest average power is 620 mW for a pulse duration of 173 fs. Since Yb:SrF(2) corresponds to the longest-lifetime Yb-doped crystal with which the mode-locking operation has been achieved, a detailed analysis...

Harmonically mode-locked Er-fiber soliton lasers have become a reliable source of high-repetition-rate picosecond pulses in high-speed communications and photonic analog-to-digital conversion systems because of their low-noise, dropout-free operation. We have fabricated such a laser with a strongly dispersion-managed cavity and modeled its operation, and we have found that dispersion management...

We demonstrate the operation of an ultralow-repetition-rate, high-peak-power, picosecond diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 passively mode-locked laser oscillator. Repetition rates lower than 1 MHz were achieved with the use of a new design for a multiple-pass cavity and a semiconductor saturable absorber. Long-term stable operation at 1.2 MHz with a pulse duration of 16.3 ps and an average output power of 4...