ABSTRACT
We demonstrated the generation of an azimuthally and radially polarized laser beam in a Nd:YAG laser in which a birefringent yttrium vanadate (c-cut YVO4) crystal was used as the intra-cavity polarization discriminator. AP and RP with respective output 2.4W (o-o efficiency of 35.4%, M2 = 2.3) and 2.52W (o-o efficiency of 37.2%, M2 = 2.4) were generated at absorbed pump power 6.78W. We discuss a simple method for converting between azimuthal and radial polarizations by only regulating input pump power and mechanism of mode selection in the laser. This vector laser will facilitate many applications.
ABSTRACT
Microchip lasers are applied as the light sources on various occasions with the end-pumping scheme. However, the vibration, the temperature drift, or the mechanical deformation of the pumping light in laser diodes in the end-pumping scheme will lead to instability in the microchip laser output, which causes errors and malfunctioning in the optic systems. In this paper, the side-pumping scheme is applied for improving the disturbance-resisting ability of the microchip laser. The transverse mode and the frequency purity of the laser output are tested. To ensure unicity in the frequency of the laser output, numerical simulations based on Fresnel-Kirchhoff diffraction theory are conducted on the parameters of the microchip laser cavity. Film-etching technique is applied to restrain the area of the film and form the microcavity mirrors. The laser output with microcavity mirrors is ensured to be in single frequency and with good beam quality, which is significant in the applications of microchip lasers as the light sources in optical systems.
