title: Unidirectional single-mode Nd:YAG laser with a planar semimonolithic ring cavity.
abstract: Unidirectional single-mode operation of a diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser with a planar semimonolithic ring cavity has been demonstrated at 1064 nm. The semimonolithic cavity consists of a laser active medium placed in a magnetic field, a crystal quartz plate, and an output coupling mirror, which form an optical diode by acting as a Faraday rotator, a reciprocal polarization rotator, and a partial polarizer, respectively. A single-mode output power of 155 mW and a slope efficiency of 17% were obtained with a 1.2-W diode laser at 809 nm. A laser linewidth of less than 100 kHz is inferred from a beat note frequency spectrum between two identical laser systems and continuous tuning to greater than 2 GHz was observed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Kusongdong, Yusong-gu, Taejon 305-701, Korea. s_jrpark@cais.kaist.ac.kr
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: T H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: H W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Lee