INTRACAVITY FREQUENCY-DOUBLING OF A CONTINUOUS-WAVE, DIODE-LASER-PUMPED NEODYMIUM LANTHANUM SCANDIUM BERATE LASER

Neodymium-doped lanthanum scandium berate [Nd:LaSc3(BO3)(4)] is a new material for efficient and compact diode-pumped solid-state lasers. A simple plane-plane 3-mm-long resonator is formed by a coated Nd(10%):LaSc3(BO3)(4) crystal and a coated potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP) crystal. The second-harmonic output power at 531 nm is 522 mW at 2.05-W incident pump power of the diode laser. The corresponding optical efficiency is 25%, and the conversion efficiency from the fundamental to the second harmonic is 55%. The well-known chaotic power fluctuations of intracavity frequency-doubled lasers (green problem) are avoided by use of a short KTP crystal, between 0.5 and 2 mm in length.