Laser and self-Raman-laser oscillations of PBMoO4:Nd3+ crystal under laser diode pumping

• Published in: Optics letters 2006-01, Vol.31 (1), p.65-67
• Main Authors: Basiev, Tasoltan T, Vassiliev, Sergey V, Doroshenko, Maxim E, Osiko, Vyacheslav V, Puzikov, Vyacheslav M, Kosmyna, Miron B
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0146-9592
• DOI: 10.1364/OL.31.000065

Different regimes of laser operation and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) for a laser diode (LD)-pumped PbMoO4:Nd3+ crystal have been investigated. Under 1.5 W LD pumping, the output power of the PbMoO4:Nd3+ laser in the free-running mode at 1056 nm reached 0.65 W with a slope efficiency of up to 53%. Using different LiF: F-2 saturable absorbers, we achieved a maximum pulse energy of 11 microJ at a 1.4 ns pulse duration and a maximum output power of 0.35 W (10 microJ) at a 7 ns pulse width in the passively Q-switched mode. PbMoO4:Nd3+ self-Raman-laser operation at 1163 nm (first Stokes) was obtained for the first time, to our knowledge. The self-Raman-laser output pulse energy was measured to be as high as 6 microJ and the pulse duration was estimated to be shorter than 500 ps.