High power YAG/Nd:YAG/YAG ceramic planar waveguide laser

A high power YAG/Nd:YAG/YAG ceramic planar waveguide laser was demonstrated. For continuous wave regime, a maximum output power of 10.4 W at a center wavelength of 1064.6 nm was obtained under an absorbed pump power of 17.4 W, corresponding to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 59.8%. For acousto-optically Q-switched operation, we obtained 2.5 W of output power at a pulse repetition frequency of 10 kHz. The pulse duration was 6.5 ns with peak power and pulse energy of 38.5 kW and 0.25 mJ, respectively.