Laser Diode-Pumped Continuous-Wave 589 nm Laser with Doubly Resonant Intracavity Sum-Frequency Mixing

A compact continuous wave(CW) 589 nm laser is reported by intracavity sum-frequency mixing in a composite cavity.The laser has two sub-cavities.Nd∶YAG crystal and Nd∶YVO4 crystal were pumped by two laser diodes respectively in the two sub-cavities.In the two cavities wavelengths of 1319 nm from Nd∶YAG(corresponding to the 4F3/2-4I13/2 transition) and 1064 nm from Nd∶YVO4(corresponding to the 4F3/2-4I11/2 transition) were chosen to be mixed into 589 nm laser.Through designing of the cavity,the optimum matching of modes and gains for the two wavelengths was obtained.In the overlapping of the cavities,sum-frequency mixing was generated with a type I critical phase matching BiB3O6(BIBO) crystal.A stable laser output of 24 mW at 589 nm with low noise was obtained at the incident pump power of 750 mW for the Nd∶YAG crystal and 600 mW for the Nd∶YVO4 crystal.