Femtosecond laser-written double-cladding waveguides in Nd:GdVO4crystal: Raman analysis, guidance, and lasing

We report on waveguide lasers at 1064.5 nm in femtosecond laser-written double-cladding waveguides in Nd∶GdVO4 crystals. The cladding waveguides guide both transverse electric (TE)- and transverse magnetic (TM)-polarized modes with considerably symmetric single-modal profiles and show good transmission properties (propagation loss as low as 1.0 dB∕cm). The detailed structure of the single and double claddings has been imaged by means of μ-Raman analysis, and the observed slight fabrication asymmetries with respect to an ideal circular cladding are in well agreement with the observed differences in TE/TM propagation losses. Importantly, the Raman imaging shows the complete absence of lattice defect at the laser active volume. Under the optical pumping at 808 nm, a maximum output power up to 0.43Wof the continuous wave waveguide laser with a slope efficiency of 52.3% has been achieved in the double-cladding waveguide, which is 21.6% and 23% higher than that from a single-inner cladding waveguide. Furthermore, the maximum output power of the waveguide laser is 72% higher than that of the double-line waveguide due to the double-cladding designThe work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 11274203), the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (No. 20130131130001), and Junta de Castilla y León under project SA086A12-2. Support from the Centro de Láseres Pulsados (CLPU) is also acknowledged. This work was supported by the Spanish Government under project MAT2011- 29255-C02-02 and by the Generalitat de Catalunya under project 2014SGR1358