Recent advances for diode-pumped CW Pr:YLF lasers in power scaling at different wavelengths

Visible lasers based on blue laser diodes (LDs) pumped trivalent rare-earth ions doped crystal have recently attracted growing attention due to their advantages of high-efficiency, compact structure, and low cost, having wide applications in the fields of laser displays, biomedicine, material processing and so on. Pr:YLF lasers have been widely researched and further developed for the excellent spectral characteristics of Pr:YLF crystals. Specifically, LD-pumped continuous-wave (CW) Pr:YLF lasers have attained significant progress in lasing output performance, including output power scaling, emission wavelength expansion, and output mode diversification with the maturity of blue LDs. This paper mainly reviews the recent research progress on output performance improvement and provides insights into the further development trend of LD-pumped CW Pr:YLF lasers, aiming to provide a useful reference for the development of LD-pumped CW Pr:YLF lasers in the future. © 2024 Elsevier B.V.