Compact and Flexible Dual-Wavelength Laser Generation in Coaxial Diode-End-Pumped Configuration

A novel coaxial diode-end-pumping configuration with combined two laser crystals was proposed for simultaneous, compact, and flexible dual-wavelength laser generation. Theoretical simulations showed that by balancing the gain in both laser crystals by varying the pump focusing depth or pump wavelength, the power ratio for each wavelength could be tuned for either continuous wave or Q-switched operation, and the time interval between two pulses at different wavelengths in Q-switched mode was also tunable. Experimental verifications were performed, demonstrating coincident conclusions. As there was no gain competition between two wavelengths, the output characteristics were much more stable than dual-wavelength generation in a single-laser crystal. It is believed that this is a feasible and promising method for generating dual-wavelength laser for applications of spectroscopy, precision measurement, nonlinear optical frequency conversion to terahertz wave, and so on.