Pulsed blue laser at 491 nm by nonlinear cavity dumping

A nonlinear cavity dumping process is applied for the first time to generate kW peak power pulses at 491 nm. The system is based on efficient sum-frequency mixing of 1063 nm and 912 nm radiations in a BiBO nonlinear crystal placed inside a Nd:GdVO4 laser oscillator with a high finesse cavity at 912 nm. The nonlinear cavity dumping process is triggered by high peak power nanosecond pulses from a 1063 nm Q-switched Nd:GdVO4 laser operating at 10 kHz. To reach the kW range at 491 nm a key point is to Q-switch the high finesse 912 nm cavity instead of continuous wave operation. Thus, the peak power (9.3 kW for 3 ns pulses) and the average power (280 mW) obtained at 491 nm are 14 times higher than the one obtained when the 912 nm laser operated in continuous wave.