학술논문

Wavelength selection, spatial filtering and polarization control of an Er:YAG laser cavity by resonant-grating mirror
Document Type
Conference
Source
2013 Conference on Lasers & Electro-Optics Europe & International Quantum Electronics Conference CLEO EUROPE/IQEC Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe (CLEO EUROPE/IQEC), 2013 Conference on and International Quantum Electronics Conference. :1-1 May, 2013
Subject
Aerospace
Bioengineering
Communication, Networking and Broadcast Technologies
Components, Circuits, Devices and Systems
Engineered Materials, Dielectrics and Plasmas
Engineering Profession
Fields, Waves and Electromagnetics
General Topics for Engineers
Nuclear Engineering
Photonics and Electrooptics
Power, Energy and Industry Applications
Language
Abstract
Er:YAG crystals are good candidates for eye-safe solid-state lasers with output pulses energy in the mJ range, which are required for applications in atmospheric propagation such as active imaging, lidar and wind mapping. Er:YAG crystals can emit at 1645 nm or 1617 nm. The laser emission of Er:YAG naturally occurs at 1645 nm and is unpolarized. In addition, the required high incident pump powers in quasi-three-levels laser such as Er:YAG could lead to a poor beam quality factor (M 2 ) because of well-known thermal effects in rod lasers. Some applications may require emission at 1617 nm with a good M 2 factor for long range sensing, as well as linearly polarized output beams for pollutant probing [1]. Therefore, a basic Er:YAG cavity could be provided with an intra-cavity etalon for wavelength selection [2], a reflective polarizer for polarization control, and a pinhole for spatial filtering. In this contribution, we report on a resonant-grating mirror (Fig. 1 left) which can be used to fullfil these three functions, hence simplifying the laser setup [3].