Suppression of spatial hole burning in a solid-state laser with the degenerate resonator configuration

Abstract

Under degenerate resonator configuration and tightly focused pump beam in a linear-cavity solid-state laser, the spatial hole-burning effect can be suppressed. This laser can attain very high intensity in the gain medium due to shrinkage of its beam waist to match the pump beam and therefore most of its gain is depleted even by a standing wave. This was demonstrated by a simulation with spatial dependent rate equations and experiment results of a plano-concave Nd: YVO4 laser. The suppression effect was observed up to 20 times the pump threshold. (C) 2005 Optical Society of America.