Power scaling and frequency stabilization of an injection-locked laser

The power scaling and frequency stabilization aspects of a high power, injection-locked, arc-lamp pumped Nd:YAG rod laser at 1.064 gm are considered. A complete theoretical analysis is performed on the Pound-Drever-Hall injection-locking technique used to lock the oscillation frequency of a high power laser to that of a low power frequency-stable laser. The explicit form of the injection-locking error signal is derived and an effective frequency noise control loop is established, which serves as a building block for describing more elaborate stabilization techniques. I achieve a 24-W, TEM00, linearly-polarized (97:1) output with an M2 of 1.07, using one such elaborate stabilization technique. I demonstrate the similarity between the frequency stability of the output field of an external cavity frequency-doubled laser and the injection-locked laser. I establish a frequency reference at 1 μm with a frequency stability of 10–3 at one second by locking the frequency-doubled NPRO to an electronic transition in I₂.