High-average-power narrow-line-width sum frequency generation 589 nm laser

An 81 W average-power all-solid-state sodium beacon laser at 589 nm with a repetition rate of 250 Hz is introduced, which is based on a novel sum frequency generation idea between two high-energy, different line widths, different beam quality infrared lasers (a 1064 nm laser and a 1319 nm laser). The 1064 nm laser, which features an external modulated CW single frequency seed source and two stages of amplifiers, can provide average-power of 150 W, beam quality M2 of ~1.8 with ultra-narrow line width (< 100 kHz). The 1319 nm laser can deliver average-power of 100 W, beam quality M2 of ~3.0 with a narrow line width of ~0.3 GHz. By sum frequency mixing in a LBO slab crystal (3 mm x 12 mm x 50 mm), pulse energy of 325 mJ is achieved at 589 nm with a conversion efficiency of 32.5 %. Tuning the center wavelength of 1064 nm laser by a PZT PID controller, the target beam’s central wavelength is accurately locked to 589.15910 nm with a line width of ~0.3 GHz, which is dominated mainly by the 1319 nm laser. The beam quality is measured to be M2 < 1.3. The pulse duration is measured to be 150 μs in full-width. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the highest average-power for all-solid-state sodium beacon laser ever reported.