Efficient blue light generation from a diode laser pumped Nd:YAG laser

We report on the efficient intracavity doubling of a 946 nm Nd:YAG laser with an LBO crystal at room temperature. A CW single-ended output power of 103 mW at 473 nm is obtained at a pump power of 2.58 W with an optical conversion efficiency of 4.0%. The overall efficiency is 7.2% if blue light output from both directions is taken into account. To our knowledge, this is the highest efficiency to date for a diode laser pumped compact Nd:YAG blue laser with a simple flat-concave resonator using a bulk nonlinear crystal for intracavity doubling