Damman grating for array pumping of single-longitudinal-mode YVO4 laser

The Dammann Grating (DG), a binary phase grating, efficiently divides incident light into equal-intensity sub-beams, making it ideal for beam splitting applications. In this research, an array-pumped, microchip Nd:YVO₄ laser was explored by incorporating a DG into the collimation part of the pump optical path, to obtain single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) and multi-beam output at 1064 nm. As a result, 2×2 arrayed output of the laser was obtained with a total output power of 558.0 mW at 1.86-W pump power, exhibiting a slope efficiency of 36.3%, offering distinct advantages in SLM operation due to its thermal management capabilities in homogenizing thermal gradients and thus resulting in highpower operation with high beam quality. Except for the 2×2 array pumping, high-power SLM operation also can be expected by applying higher-order array pumping.