>30 W vortex LG01 or HG10 laser using a mode transforming output coupler

High-power vortex light generated directly from lasers will help drive their applications in material processing, optical manipulation, levitation, particle acceleration, and communications, but limited power has been achieved to date. In this work, we demonstrate record vortex average power of 31.3 W directly from a laser, to the best of our knowledge, using an interferometric mode transforming output coupler to convert a fundamental mode Nd:YVO4 laser into a LG(01) vortex output. The vortex laser was Q-switched with up to 600 kHz pulse rate with a high slope efficiency of 62.5% and an excellent LG(01) modal purity of 95.2%. We further demonstrate > 30W laser power in a high quality HG(10) mode by simple adjustment of the output coupler. Experimental investigations of varying output coupling transmission are compared with theory. This successful implementation of the interferometric output coupler in a high power system demonstrates the suitability of the mode transforming method for robust turn-key vortex lasers with high efficiency and high modal purity, with scalable power and pulse rate. Published by The Optical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.