An external frequency doubling electro-optically Q-switched neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG) 473 nm blue laser was demonstrated. With absorbed pump energy of 48 mJ at 100 Hz repetition rate, about 2 mJ of 473 nm blue laser pulse energy was achieved by cascade frequency doubling. The second harmonic conversion efficiency was 64.5%, and overall optical-optical efficiency was 4.2%, respectively. The blue laser pulse width was less than 10 ns, and beam quality factor was less than 2.4.

We demonstrate a dual-wavelength passively Q-switched Nd3+-doped glass fiber laser using a few-layer topological insulator Bi2Se3 as a saturable absorber (SA) for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. The laser resonator is a simple and compact linear cavity using two fiber end-facet mirrors. The SA is fabricated by Bi2Se3/polyvinyl alcohol composite film. By inserting the SA into the laser cavity, a stable Q-switching operation is achieved with the shortest pulse width and maximum pulse repetition rate of 601 ns and 205.2 kHz, respectively. The maximum average output power and maximum pulse energy obtained are about 6.6 mW and 38.8 nJ, respectively.

We report on the performance of a continuous-wave Nd:GdVO4 laser in-band diode-pumped at 912 nm with high output power and excellent beam quality. The laser produced an output power of 19.8 W at 1063 nm with an optical efficiency of 59.3% and slope efficiency of 62.7%. The laser threshold was ～2.04 W of the absorbed pump power, and laser output beam quality was ≤1.2 in the horizontal and vertical directions. The strength of thermal lensing at full output power (33.4 W of absorbed power) was measured to be an average of 8.6 diopters. It is shown that thermal lensing is reduced by a factor of 2 with respect to the Nd:YVO4 lasers, thus opening a way for further output-power scaling.

The continuous wave (CW) and passively Q-switched (PQS) performances of diode-pumped Nd:(LaxGd1 x)3Gd5O12 (Nd:LaGGG) at 1.33 μm are achieved for the first time to our knowledge. The maximum CW output power of 5.1 W is obtained with the optical-optical conversion efficiency of 25.3% and the slope efficiency of 26.6%. In the PQS operation, by using the V3+:YAG crystal as the saturable absorber, the maximum average output power, shortest pulse width, largest pulse energy, and highest peak power are measured to be 1.1 W, 27.54 ns, 75.78 μJ, and 2.44 kW, respectively.

We produce a maximum 1.45 W laser output at 1064 nm using a neodymium-doped silicate glass fiber that has a rectangular core with dimensions of ～6.3 μm×31.5 μm. The measured divergence angles of the output laser in two dimensions are 3.22° and 1.76°, respectively. The output power is stable and limited only by the available pump power.

We present a diode-pumped high-energy ceramic Nd:YAG planar waveguide that is demonstrated as a record in output energy for the ceramic planar waveguide fabricated by nonaqueous tape casting and solid-state reactive sintering. Under a repetition rate of 100 Hz and a pulse width of 250 μs, a maximum output pulse energy of 327 mJ is obtained with a beam quality factor of =2.6×7.0. The corresponding peak power is 1308 W. The extraction efficiency of the system is about 56%.

A stable passively mode-locked laser of Nd3+:Gd0.5Y2.5Al5O12 (Nd:GYAG) disordered crystal is experimentally investigated both using Z-type and W-type cavities with a semiconductor saturable absorbed mirror. The continuous-wave mode-locked threshold of the absorbed pump power is just 1.8 W. The maximum average output power is 210 mW, which is obtained at the absorbed pump power of 2.3 W. The pulse width is measured to be 11.1 ps assuming a Gaussian shape.

We report a simple Nd:YAG laser that emits radially polarized beam with helical wavefront. The laser cavity consists of a piece of laser crystal and a plane output coupler, and there is no additional polarization component inside it. The pump light is converted into annular profile through de-focal coupling into a multi-mode fiber. For the continuous-wave (CW) operation, the laser emits radially polarized vortex beam, and it is observed that the helical wavefront of the laser beam is switched from right handedness to left handedness when the output coupler is tilted slightly. For the Q-switched operation under the insertion of a Cr4+:YAG saturable absorber inside the cavity, we obtain radially polarized outputs with left-handedness helical wavefront. By tilting the laser crystal slightly, the laser output switches to azimuthal polarization at pump power larger than 4.5 W and left-handedness helical wavefront of laser beam is preserved.

In this work, the absorption, fluorescence spectra, and fluorescence decay curve of Nd:Lu3Al5O12, i.e., neodymium lutetium aluminum garnet (Nd:LuAG) ceramic are investigated. A diode-end-pumped Nd:LuAG ceramic laser is demonstrated for the first time (to our knowledge). We present the experiment results of Nd:LuAG ceramic’s continuous wave (CW) and electro-optically (E-O) Q-switched performance. CW output power of 2.5 W is obtained, corresponding to optical-to-optical efficiency of 17.2% and slope efficiency of 24.3%. For the E-O Q-switched setup, the shortest pulse width and the largest pulse energy are measured to be 4.8 ns and 1.96 mJ, respectively. Its optical-to-optical efficiency and the slope efficiency are 17.3% and 28.7%, respectively.