The construction of a Nd:YAG laser
What is the Nd:YAG laser made of?
Neodymium:YAG Laser (1064 nm)
The Nd:YAG laser's active medium is a crystal of yttrium, aluminum, and garnet doped with neodymium ions.
What is the structure of YAG laser?
Nd:YAG laser is basically categorized into 3 domains that are the active medium, pumping source and the optical resonator.
Active medium: This is also known as the laser medium and is the middle portion of the structure i.e., Nd:YAG crystal.
How is a YAG laser made?
The active medium or laser medium of the Nd:YAG laser is made up of a synthetic crystalline material (Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (YAG)) doped with a chemical element (neodymium (Nd)).
- Nd:YAG laser consists of crystalline YAG with a chemical formula Y3Al5O12 as a host material.
The Nd3 + ions substitute yttrium ion sites in the lattice with a maximum doping level of around 2%.
This is a typical four-level energy laser system illustrated in Fig.
Design and construction of the laser
The Nd:YAG laser basic scheme consists namely of an optical pumping system, an opto- mechanical system (to form the cavity) and a cooling system. To pump the active medium, the electrical conversion efficiency into optical energy is about 3% [1].