title: 520-W continuous-wave diode corner-pumped composite Yb:YAG slab laser.
abstract: We present a pumping scheme for a quasi-three-level solid-state laser. The scheme uses a slab laser configuration with the pump light incident from the slab corners. A diode-corner-pumped composite Yb:YAG-YAG slab laser operating in high-power cw mode was designed to prove the scheme. As much as 520 W of output power was obtained from a single 1-mm-thick composite slab with 0.5-at. %-doped Yb:YAG. The slope efficiency and the optical-to-optical efficiency with respect to the pump power were 32% and 25%, respectively. This result shows the validity of the corner-pumping concept and its feasibility in the development of high-power solid-state lasers.
authors.affiliation: Center for Photonics and Electronics, State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Department of Precision Instruments and Mechanology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China. qiangliu@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Mali
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.forename: Fuyuan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Wupeng
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li