Femtosecond laser-written double-cladding waveguides in Nd:GdVO4 crystal: Raman analysis, guidance, and lasing

We report on waveguide lasers at 1064.5 nm in femtosecond laser-written double-cladding waveguides in Nd:GdVO4 crystals. The cladding waveguides guide both transverse electric (TE)- and transverse magnetic (TM)-polarized modes with considerably symmetric single-modal profiles and show good transmission properties (propagation loss as low as 1.0 dB/cm). The detailed structure of the single and double claddings has been imaged by means of mu-Raman analysis, and the observed slight fabrication asymmetries with respect to an ideal circular cladding are in well agreement with the observed differences in TE/TM propagation losses. Importantly, the Raman imaging shows the complete absence of lattice defect at the laser active volume. Under the optical pumping at 808 nm, a maximum output power up to 0.43W of the continuous wave waveguide laser with a slope efficiency of 52.3% has been achieved in the double-cladding waveguide, which is 21.6% and 23% higher than that from a single-inner cladding waveguide. Furthermore, the maximum output power of the waveguide laser is 72% higher than that of the double-line waveguide due to the double-cladding design. (C) 2014 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)