Performance of various diode-pumped Nd:laser materials: influence of inhomogeneous broadening

A comparison is made between the laser performance of several diode-pumped Nd/sup 3+/:laser systems by using strictly identical experimental conditions. The variations of the laser efficiencies with diode wavelength and with the output mirror transmission are reported and analyzed in detail. Very different behaviors are found depending on the multistate character of the laser host and on the inhomogeneous width of the fluorescence lines. The results are interpreted within the frame of a theoretical model recently applied to the case of a diode-pumped Nd/sup 3+/:phosphate glass laser.<
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