THURSDAY MORNING

10101

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measurement
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.

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SFM of the 629 nm red radiation with the residual 1.535 nm signal wave. This SFM generates in
a 20 mm long LBO crystal almost 5 W of blue radiation with a crystal internal conversion efficiency of 30%.
Another attractive source of visible light is
based on a 355 nm pumped OPO. Using LBO as
nonlinear crystal, the 355 nm pumped OPO generates signal radiation at wavelengths which cover a considerable fraction of the blue spectral
range. Subject of experimental investigations
were OPOs which consisted of an LBO crystal
and a folded, six-mirror standing wave cavity.
With an 18 mm long Brewster-cut (NCPM) LBO
crystal, for example, the wavelength of the OPO
signal wave could be tuned from 458 nm to 480
nm by changing the temperature of the LBO
crystal from 190C to 20C. The wavelengths of
the corresponding idler wave are in the range of
1360-1580 nm. At room temperature (T =
25"C), the OPO generated 479 nm signal radiation. The power of this blue output was 3.4 W,
when pumping the OPO with 9 W of 355 nm radiation. The power of the corresponding idler
output was 1.2 W. The determined internal conversion efficiency of this OPO was 70%.
An even higher internal efficiency of up to
82% was obtained with a critically phasematched (CPM) LBO crystal in an idler resonant
OPO cavity. With a pump power of 10 W this
OPO generated 5 W of signal power at 461 nm.
The power of the 1535 nm idler radiation was 1.4
W (when using an output coupler with an idler
transmission of 13%).
Furthermore, an OPO pumped by the 266 nm
fourth harmonic generated directly red and blue
radiation. This was shown experimentally by using CPM CLBO as nonlinear crystal. The signal
and idler waves of this OPO covered the spectral
regions of 442 n m 4 8 0 nm and 597 nm-668 nm,
respectively, when the phase-matching angle was
changed from 61.3'to 63.1".
In these measurements the OPO consisted of
a 10 mm long Brewster-cut CPM CLBO crystal
(@ = 45O, 0 = 62O) in a folded four-mirror standing wave cavity, which was resonant for the idler
wave. It was found, however, that crystal internal
absorption of the U V pump radiation causes
thermal lensing and thermal dephasing of the interacting waves. The power of the generated signal radiation thus saturated at an average pump
power level of about 1 W. Although the measured
pump depletion was as high as 30%, the observed
maximum power of the signal wave was limited
to 109 mW. As a result, the 266 nm pumped OPO
is at present not a useful alternative to other conversion schemes, unless new nonlinear crystals
with low pump absorptions become available.
Present investigations concentrate on the improvement of the modelocked NdYV04 laser in
respect to pulse power, pulse duration and repetition rate. This is because higher laser power and
shorter pulses will further increase the conversion efficiency and thus the power of the frequency converted visible radiation.
Besides diode-pumped solid state lasers with
subsequent frequency conversion we have developed visible solid state sources based on high
power diode laser systems with frequency doubling in periodically poled (pp) nonlinear crystals. The diode (MOPA) system (which consists
of a modelocked InGaAs oscillator and a tapered
amplifier) generates at 920 nm, 16 ps long pulses
with a repetition rate of 4.8 GHz and an average

:L
0

10

15

20

30

25

pumping power

CThC2 Fig. 2.

Output power at 532 nm.

1. A. Giesen et al., Appl. Phys. B 58, 365-372

(1994)
2. G. Hollemann et al. in Conference on Lasers
and Electro-Optics, Vol. 6 of OSA Technical

Digest Series (Optical Society of America,

Washington D.C., 1998), pp. 543-544.

CThC3

(Invited)

8 3 0 am

Advanced solid state sources for high

power visible light generation
R. Wallenstein, Fachbereich Physik, Universitaet
Kaiserslautern, Erwin-Schroedinger-Str. 46,
0-67653 Kaiserlautern;
Email: wallenst@physik.uni-kl.de

This paper reports on the development of visible,

all solid state laser sources which are based on
frequency doubled infrared diode lasers or diode
pumped solid state lasers with nonlinear frequency conversion.
The diode pumped solid state lasers are passively mode-locked NdYV04 oscillator amplifier
systems which generate 7 ps long pulses with a
repetition rate of 80 MHZ and an average power
of up to 40 W.
Because of the high peak power (of up to 75
KW) of the short ps laser pulses the infrared laser
light is converted with high efficiency into green
(532 nm) or ultraviolett (355 nm or 266 nm) radiation. In fact, single pass second harmonic generation (SHG) or sumfrequency mixing (SFM)
in Lithiumtriborate (LBO) or Ceasium-doped
Lithiumtriborat (CLBO) provided a conversion
efficiency as high as 76% (SHG, 532 nm), 36%
(SFM, 355 nm) and 25% (FHG, 266 nm).
The infrared laser radiation or its harmonics
are converted into the visible using a variety of
schemes which contain a synchronously pumped
OPO and SHG or SFM of OPO and laser radiation.
An example for the efficient generation of
powerful visible light is a source based on a noncritically phase-matched (NCP) KTA OPO
pumped by the fundamental of the NdYV04
laser. Synchronouslyexcited by 30 W of the 1064
nm radiation the OPO generates 14.6 W of 1535
nm signal and 6.9 W of 3470 nm idler radiation.
The total output of 21 W corresponds to an internal conversion efficiency of 75%. SFM of the
signal wave and the 1.064 nm laser radiation generates red 629 nm light with output powers of up
to 12 W. The efficiency of this SFM performed in
a 15 mm long KTA crystal is as high as 64%. With
the same system blue 446 nm light is obtained by

/ CLEO 2001 / 389

power of up to 3.4 W in an almost diffraction

limited beam (Mz
< 1.6). Single pass SHG of 2.5
W generated in an 8 mm long KTP crystal more
than 220 mW of blue 460 nm light.
Present efforts concentrate on a reduction of
the pulse duration (to about 8 ps) and of the repetition rate to about 2.4 GHz. From the corresponding increase of the pulse power we expect a
considerable improvement of the SHG efficiency
and thus of the visible laser output.
These sources have the potential of a very
compact design and of mass-producability. The
fact that they can be realized at almost any wavelength in the visible spectral range, is a further,
very attractive feature.

CThC4

900 am

Diode end-pumped, TEMm Nd:YV04 laser

with output power greater than l 2 W at
355 nm

Norman Hodgson, Dave Dudley, Lukas Gruber,

Wd Jordan, Hanna Hoffman, Spectra-Physics
Lasers, OEM Business Unit, 1305 Terra Bella
Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94043
We have developed a diode-bar pumped, Qswitched Nd:YV04 laser that generates over 12 W
of average power at 355 nm in a polarized TEM,,,,
mode (M2 < 1.2). This performance is achieved
with 11.5% optical-to-optical conversion efficiency (808 nm to 355 nm). To our knowledge,
this is the highest 355 nm TEMm mode power reported to date for an end-pumped solid state
laser.
PCB manufacturing and stereolithography
are the main driving forces for the design of high
power diode-pumped, Q-switched solid state
lasers at a wavelength of 355 nm. Whereas the
main laser driver for stereolithography is the average W output power (typically between 0.4 W
and 1.0 W), the PCB manufacturing market increasingly demands UV lasers that provide pulse
energies in excess of 300 pJoules at high repetition rates. For via hole drilling speed scales at a
rate of about 10 holes per second and per kHz of
repetition rate. The Nd:YV04 laser configuration
we report generates an average 355 nm output
power of over 12 W at a repetition rate of 30 kHz
using a dual rod, periodic resonator design and
external frequency conversion in two critically
phase-matched LBOs. The dual rod laser design
provides an effective means for scaling the output power of end-pumped solid state lasers with
efficiencies approaching the quantum limit."'
Four derated, fiber-coupled 40 W, 808 nm
bars are used to dual end-pump two Vanadate
crystals at an input pump power of 26 W at the
end of each of the four fibers (Fig. 1). Each of the
four fiber-coupled bars has an output bundle of
1.1 mm and numerical aperture of less than 0.1.
A periodic resonator with a geometrical length of
1.3 m provides a TEMw power at 1064 nm of up
to 48 W when the acousto-optic Q-switch is operated at high repetition rates. The M' of the IR
output was measured to be less than 1.05 and the
peak power stability was better than 1% rms over
the entire repetition rate range between 10 kHz
and 100 kHz.
Second harmonic generation was realized
with a non-critically phase-matched LBO. External UV generation was realized using two critically phase-matched LBOs. A patented wall-off

390 / CLEO 2001 / THURSDAY MORNING

--t

47inches

HIGH

TELESCOPE (4)

1
DICHROIC
MIRROR
OUTPUT

COUPLER

CThC4 Fig. 1. Configuration of the fiber coupled diode-bar pumped NdYVO, laser with external
third harmonic generation in LBO.

3.

J.W. Pieterse et al., US patent no. 5,835,513,

Q-switched Laser System providing UV
light, Nov. 1998.

CThC5

9 1 5 am

Hlglbrellable hlgh-power 266-nmUV beam

generation by using hlghquallty uniform
CLBO crystals with an alkolid-state laser
20

40

BO

80

100

Repetition Rate [kHr]

CThC4 Fig. 2. TEMW output power in Qswitch operation as a function of repetition rate
for three different wavelengths. The 532 nm data
were taken with one non-critically phase
matched LBO crystal.

compensation technique was applied to maximize the beam overlap of the infrared and the
green beam inside the second cry~tal.~
Fig. 2
presents measured output power as a function of
repetition rate at 1064 nm, 532 nm and 355 nm.
The peak power stability at 355 nm was better
than 2% r m s for repetition rates between 20 kHz
and 60 kHz. For the same range of repetition
rates, the measured pulse durations at 355 nm
range from 50 ns to 75 ns with the beam quality
factor MZmeasured to be less than 1.2.
In conclusion, we have developed a diode-bar
end-pumped NdYVO, laser that generates over
12 W of average power at 355 nm in a TEMoo
mode with a total optical efficiency of 11.5%. To
our knowledge, this is the highest TEMWmode
power reported to date for a diode-end-pumped
355 nm solid state laser. Furthermore, the
demonstrated power levels at the fundamental
and second harmonic of 48 W and 24 W, respectively, are also among the highest reported to
date.
References
1. N. Hodgson, K. Griswold, W. Jordan, S .
Knapp, A. Peirce, C. Pohalski, E. Cheng, J.
Cole, D. Dudley, A. Petersen, W. Nighan jr.,
Proc.SPIEvol.3611,119-131,1999
2. W.L. Nighan jr, N. Hodgson, D. Dudley, E.
Cheng, CLEO 1999 Technical Digest, paper
CMA1, Optical Society of America, Washington D.C. 1999

Tetsuo Kojima, Susumu Konno,

Shuichi Fujikawa, Koji Yasui,
Tomosumi Kamimura,* Masasi Yashimura,
Yusuke Mori, Takatomo Sasaki,*
Mitsuhiro Tanaka,** Yukikatsu Okada,
Advanced TechnologyR ei.D Center, Mirsubishi
Electric Corporation, 8-1-1 Tsukaguchi,
Amagasaki, Hyogo 661-8661, Japan; email:
kojima@lap.crl.me1co.co.jp; *Department of
Electrical Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1
Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka 565, Japan;
**KogakuGiken Co., Ltd., 135Nurumizu, Atsugi,
Kanagawa 243, Japan
High-power all-solid-state UV lasers are used for
precise material processing applications in industrial fields with the potential advantage in the
maintenance cost compared with other UV
lasers. Industrial precise processing applications
such as drilling on printed circuit board or cutting printed circuits require more than 10 W of
W powers at kHz-repetition. Authors have generated 266-nm W power up to 20.5 W with the
repetition rate of 10 kHz by fourth harmonic
generation of an all-solid-state laser. However,
the variation of UV powers with CsLiB6Ol0
(CLBO) crystals has not been discussed. In this
paper we report on the high-reliable higher-power UV beam generation by using high-quality
uniform CLBO crystals and a high-brightness
high-power all-solid-state green laser.

The CLBO crystal was grown from a solution

using the top-seeded Kyropoulos method by Osaka University. High-quality uniform CLBO
crystals with higher damage threshold were obtained by the stirring-solution method. The
crystal surfaces were polished with the ultra-lowmoisture polishing technology by KogakuGiken
Co., Ltd.
Figure 1 shows the schematic drawing of the
UV laser system by using a CLBO crystal and a
high-brightness 100-W Q-switched diodepumped NdYAG green laser. The repetition rate,
the pulse width, and the beam quality M zof the
green laser were 10 kHz, 70 ns, and about 10, respectively. The 15-mm long CLBO crystal cut at
Type-I fourth-harmonic-generation angle without AR coating was used at 140C to prevent hygroscopic deterioration.
Figure 2 shows the average UV powers which
were obtained by 7 conventional CLBO crystals
and 5 high-quality uniform CLBO crystals at the
same input average green power about 105 W. By
using high-quality low-dispersion CLBO crystals, the dispersion of W powers decreased from
9.4 W to 1.1 W. Moreover, the UV power increased up to 23.0 W by using a high-quality lowdispersion CLBO crystal.
In conclusion, the dispersion of UV powers
was negligibly small by using high-quality uniform CLBO crystals. We obtained the W power
of 23.0 W that is, to our knowledge, the highest
266-nm UV power in solid-state lasers with high
repetition of 10 kHz. Long-term high-power UV
beam generation is now under examination.
A part of this work is performed by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Osaka University,
and KogakuGiken Co., Ltd. under the management of MSTC as the Industrial Science and
Technology Frontier Program, Advanced Photon Processing and Measurement Technologies,
of MITI supported by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization
(NEDO).
Tetsuo Kojima, Susumu Konno, Shuichi Fujikawa, Koji Yasui, Kenji Yoshizawa, Yusuke
Mori and Takatomo Sasaki, Mitsuhiro Tanaka and Yukikatsu Okada, High-power highrepetition-rate all-solid-state UV laser, in
Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics OSA
Technical Digest (Optical Society of America, Washington, D.C., 1999),paper CTu6.
2. Tetsuo Kojima, Susumu Konno, Shuichi Fujikawa, Koji Yasui, Kenji Yoshizawa, Yusuke
Mori and Takatomo Sasaki, Mitsuhiro Tanaka and Yukikatsu Okada, 20-W ultraviolet1.

25.0 /
Z
-

&.& 20.0

bP

High-quality
low-variance
CLEO crystal

5
Harmonic

all-solid-state

Power meter

tem.

Fig. 1.

$ 10.0

5.0

Optics

CThC5

15.0

M
a,

mirror

All-solid-state UV laser sys-

Fig. 2. Average UV powers which

were obtained by 7 conventional CLBO crystals
and 5 high-quality uniform CLBO crystals. Input
average green powers were about 105 W.
CThC5