High Power Operation of Nd:YAG Rod Lasers pumped by fiber-coupled diode lasers

We report on diode laser side-pumped, cw Nd:YAG rod lasers. Applying fiber-coupled diode lasers as pump sources, linear pump power densities of more than 200 W/cm are attainable and an adjustment of the pump light distribution inside the laseractive medium allows a signtficant decrease of thermally-induced effects and minimizes aberration-related losses. In multimode operation at 1064 nm, output powers of more than 300 W cw are observed. Applying an improved resonator design, output powers up to 80 W in TEM00 mode operation are realized with an optical-to-optical efficiency of more than 20%. Thermal properties and laser performance of laser systems excited by fiber-coupled diode lasers will be discussed.