Laser and self-Raman-laser oscillations of PbMoO4:Nd3+ crystal under laser diode pumping

Different regimes of laser operation and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) for a laser diode (LD)-pumped PbMoO4:Nd3+ crystal have been investigated. Under 1.5 W LD pumping, the output power of the PbMoO4: Nd3+ laser in the free-running mode at 1056 nm reached 0.65 W with a slope efficiency of up to 53%. Using different LiF: F-2(-) saturable absorbers, we achieved a maximum pulse energy of 11 mu J at a 1.4 ns pulse duration and a maximum output power of 0.35 W (10 mu J) at a 7 ns pulse width in the passively Q-switched mode. PbMoO4: Nd3+, self-Raman-laser operation at 1163 nm (first Stokes) was obtained for the first time, to our knowledge. The self-Raman-laser output pulse energy was measured to be as high as 6 mu J and the pulse duration was estimated to be shorter than 500 ps. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.