Characterization of single-crystal synthetic diamond for multi-watt continuous-wave Raman lasers

A continuous-wave diamond Raman laser is demonstrated with an output power of 5.1 W at 1217 nm. This Raman laser is intracavity pumped by a side-pumped Nd:YLF rod laser: a 43-fold brightness enhancement between the Nd:YLF and diamond Raman lasers is observed, with the M2 beam propagation factor of the diamond Raman laser measured to be <; 1.2. Although higher output powers are demonstrated in a similar configuration using KGd(WO4)2 (KGW) as the Raman laser material (6.1 W), the brightness enhancement is much lower (2.5 fold) due to the poorer beam quality of the KGW Raman laser (M2 <; 6). The Raman gain coefficient of single-crystal synthetic diamond at a pump wavelength of 1064-nm is also measured: a maximum value of 21±2 cm/GW is returned compared to 5.7±0.5 cm/GW for KGW at the same wavelength