Reducing Thermal Effect in End-Diode-Pumped Laser Crystal by Using a Novel Resonator

We report a new way, i.e. double-end-pumping, to extend the stability range of a laser resonator, in advantage of making the thermal loading be effectively divided between the ends of the laser crystal to reduce the thermal effect, thus to extend the stability range. Using this new way, we experimentally obtained a 2.7-W cw laser source at 671 nm by intracavity frequency doubling of 1342 nm of a Nd:YVO4 laser based on the nonlinear crystal LiB3O5. The maximum pump power is 28 W, which is higher than 13 W of the single-end-pumping.