Free-space laser emission from Nd:YAG elliptical microdisks

The utilization of deformed microcavities, such as elliptical microdisks, has been widely acknowledged as an effective solution for achieving free-space emission in microcavity lasers. However, the deformations introduced in the microcavity structure tend to decrease the quality factor (Q factor), resulting in weakened output intensity. To address this issue, one potential approach is to employ highly efficient laser gain media that can compensate for the negative impact of the structure on the output intensity. In this study, we employed the exceptional laser crystal material Nd:YAG as the laser gain medium and successfully fabricated an elliptical microdisk laser with a major semiaxis of 15 µm and an eccentricity ratio of 0.15. By utilizing an 808 nm laser for pumping, we were able to achieve free-space laser emission with a slope efficiency of 1.7% and a remarkable maximum output power of 58 µW. This work contributes toward the advancement of the application of deformation microcavity lasers.