491 nm generation by sum-frequency mixing of diode pumped neodymium lasers

We present three different dual-wavelength laser architectures to obtain cw blue radiations. They are based on diode-pumped Nd-doped crystals lasing on the 4F3/2-4I11/2 and 4F3/2-4I9/2 transitions. Blue radiations were achieved by intracavity sum frequency operation in a BiB3O6 crystal. We report a maximum output blue power of 303 mW at 491 nm for a pump power of 10 W.