High-power Nd:YAG laser end pumped by a cw, 10 mm × 1 μm aperture, 10-W laser-diode bar

A Nd:YAG laser is end pumped with a 10-W laser-diode bar to produce 1.9 W of TEM(00)-mode power at 1.064 microm. The 10 mm x 1 microm bar is imaged into a 1.8 mm x 390 microm elliptical laser mode. Q-switched operation results in pulse energies of 160 microJ at a 10-kHz repetition rate, which rises to 250 microJ at 5 kHz. Frequency doubling in KTP produces 75-microJ pulses at 10 kHz, corresponding to 750 mW of average power at 532 nm and a nonlinear conversion efficiency of 47%.