1 W of 261 nm cw generation in a Pr3+:LiYF 4 laser pumped by an optically pumped semiconductor laser at 479 nm

The lack of blue pump sources for Pr-doped materials has been overcome with the recent progress in optically pumped semiconductor lasers (OPS) operating at 479 nm. The availability of reliable high power OPS pump lasers, makes Pr³⁺-doped crystals ideal gain media for compact and efficient ultraviolet solid-state lasers with output power in the Watt range. We report on the scalability of a 522/261 nm Pr:YLF cw laser that is dual-end-pumped by two OPS lasers at 479 nm. At 9.6 W of incident pump power more than 4 W were obtained at 522 nm with a slope efficiency of 45%. Intracavity frequency doubling of 522 nm resulted in 1 Watt of cw UV output at 261 nm.