We present the design and development of folded four-mirror resonators for diode end-pumped solid-state Cr:LiSAF lasers. The astigmatic effects due to the Brewster-cut laser crystal and two curved mirrors used at oblique incidence were taken into consideration. The obtained results showed the stability regions of resonator, the beam parameters in the resonator and within the laser crystal as well as other sensitive parameters and their variation ranges. Furthermore, the designed folded four-mirror resonators for diode end-pumped Cr:LiSAF laser were experimentally evaluated. The CW Cr:LiSAF laser characteristics in threshold, efficiency and beam quality as well as comparative studies are presented. | Communications in Physics, Vol. 24, No. 3S2 (2014), pp. 107-118 DOI: DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE FOLDED 4-MIRROR RESONATORS FOR DIODE END-PUMPED SOLID-STATE CR:LISAF LASERS NGUYEN VAN HAO Institute of Physics, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology and Thai Nguyen University of Science, Thai Nguyen City, Vietnam PHAM VAN DUONG, PHAM HONG MINH, DO QUOC KHANH Institute of Physics, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology ANTONIO AGNESI Laser Source Laboratory, Department of Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering, University of Pavia. Italy E-mail: nvhao@ Received 04 April 2014 Accepted for publication 24 May 2014 Abstract. We present the design and development of folded four-mirror resonators for diode end-pumped solid-state Cr:LiSAF lasers. The astigmatic effects due to the Brewster-cut laser crystal and two curved mirrors used at oblique incidence were taken into consideration. The obtained results showed the stability regions of resonator, the beam parameters in the resonator and within the laser crystal as well as other sensitive parameters and their variation ranges. Furthermore, the designed folded four-mirror resonators for diode end-pumped Cr:LiSAF laser were experimentally evaluated. The CW Cr:LiSAF laser characteristics in threshold, efficiency and beam quality as well as comparative studies are presented. Keywords: Optical resonator, laser diode pumping, Cr:LiSAF laser crystal. I. INTRODUCTION Diode-pumped, broadly tunable and solid-state laser sources are attractive for many scientific and technological applications [1]. Development of such lasers requires cavity designs to provide useful information about the stability regions of the cavity, the beam parameters in the cavity and within the laser crystal, saturable absorber. . . Among the diode-pumped solid-state laser media, the Cr:LiSAF has the broad gain bandwidth that supports laser emission continuously tunable from 750 to 1000 nm .
