Power scaling of semiconductor laser pumped praseodymium-lasers

We report on efficient lasing of Pr-doped fluoride materials with cw output powers up to 600 mW in the visible spectral range. Praseodymium doped LiYF4 and LiLuF4 crystals were pumped either by an intracavity frequency doubled optically pumped semiconductor laser with output powers up to 1.6 W and nearly diffraction limited beam quality or by a multimode GaN-laser diode with an output power of about 370 mW. Furthermore, intracavity frequency doubling of the red Pr-laser radiation to 320 nm reaching output powers of more than 360 mW with a conversion efficiency of 61% and an optical-to-optical efficiency of 22% are presented.