High-power air-cooled SiC-clad Nd:YVO4 slab lasers.

We demonstrate a diode-pumped, air-cooled, 100 W class SiC-clad Nd:YVO(4) active slab laser based on diffusion bonding of two SiC plates to a thin Nd:YVO(4) slab. We obtained 83 W of cw output power with a slope efficiency of 27% without water cooling. This demonstration initiates a novel (to the best of our knowledge) cooling design for efficient removal of waste heat generated from the diode edge-pumped high-power slab laser at room temperature.