Magic mode switching in Yb:CaGdAlO 4 laser under high pump power

Frédéric Druon (1) , Mickaël Olivier (1) , Anaël Jaffrès (2) , Pascal Loiseau (2) , Nicolas Aubry (3) , Julien Didierjean (3) , François Balembois (1) , Bruno Viana (2) , Patrick Georges (1)

1 Laboratoire Charles Fabry / Lasers
2 LCMCP - Laboratoire de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Paris
3 Fibercryst

We present unique spatial-mode switching in a cw Yb:CALGO laser when pumped at a multihundred-watts power level. It permits us to automatically stabilize to a TEM 00 mode from a highly spatial multimode regime. This stabilization is achievable thanks to polarization-mode switching allowed by the particular spectroscopic and thermal properties of Yb:CALGO crystal. This atypical and unexpected behavior is studied in detail in this Letter and explained by analysis of the thermo-optical coefficients for CALGO.

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Frédéric Druon, Mickaël Olivier, Anaël Jaffrès, Pascal Loiseau, Nicolas Aubry, et al.. Magic mode switching in Yb:CaGdAlO 4 laser under high pump power. Optics Letters, 2013, 38 (20), pp.4138-4141. ⟨10.1364/OL.38.004138⟩. ⟨hal-01304252⟩