Analytical and experimental studies on the characteristics of composite solid-state laser rods in diode-end-pumped geometry

In this paper, we report analytical and experimental studies on the characteristics of end-pumped composite laser rods with undoped end, using mainly Nd:YAG rods as an example, It is found that the peak temperature rise ill a composite rod decreases to <70% of that in a noncomposite crystal, Thermal stress is dramatically reduced to <60% by employing the composite rod structure. We also demonstrate high-power operation of the diode-end-pumped composite Nd:YVO4 rod and a maximum CW output power of 9.3 W was achieved, which is about 1.5 times higher than that in the noncomposite rod, This high-power performance of the composite rod is primarily attributed to the reduction of thermal stress inside the rod.