HIGHLY EFFICIENT 3rd HARMONIC GENERATION IN Nd: YAG LASER

摘要

The specification and drawings present an apparatus and a method for intra-cavity harmonic generation in lasers such as solid-state lasers using a multi-resonance cavity with meniscus lenses for focusing corresponding wavelength radiation components on non-linear optical elements such as non-linear optical crystals using type I or type II phase-matching for significantly increasing efficiency of the harmonic conversion and output powers of generated harmonics. Using only type I or only type II phase-matching for all non-linear crystals may eliminate the requirement of linear-polarization on the fundamental laser wavelength generation. For example, a highly efficient UV Nd:YAG laser at 355 nm (a third harmonic of the fundamental wavelength of 1064 nm for the Nd:YAG laser) using intra-cavity triple resonance cavity and meniscus lenses has been developed using embodiments described herein.