MONOLITHIC MICROCHIP LASER WITH INTRACAVITY BEAM COMBINING AND SUM FREQUENCY OR DIFFERENCE FREQUENCY MIXING

摘要

A method for producing low-noise laser output (195) at various wavelengths and/or in various operation modes in a monolithic microchip laser (100) comprises schemes of generating two fundamental beams (165, 175) in separate cavities, precise intracavity beam combination based on the walk-off effect in birefringent crystal (180), and wavelength conversion in nonlinear optical crystals (190). The fundamental beams (165, 175) are produced from light sources (160, 170) selected upon the desired wavelengths, polarizations, and other features related to the laser output (195). Low- noise laser devices operated in SLM or with spectra of flat-top or desired bandwidths are constructed according to the method. High-volume fabrication is feasible. Apparatus of compact size and efficient frequency conversion is demonstrated with various configurations including those for generating low-noise 491 nm laser, as a replacement of Argon ion laser.