Abstract

The mechanism of resonant diffraction in solid-state lasers is theoretically investigated and experimentally isolated. It consists in a variation of the diffraction losses of a laser with the laser frequency, which is induced by a frequency-dependent saturation lenslike effect that occurs in the active medium. It is shown that this mechanism can lead to peculiar variations in the laser slope efficiency. The diffracted-light spectroscopy technique permits these variations to be connected with the calculated saturation lenslike effects in a diode end-pumped Er,Yb:glass laser.

© 2001 Optical Society of America

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