A High Power Amplifier for a Single Mode 1064 Laser

We report on the construction of a high power amplifier system for a single mode 1064 nm laser. At the heart of this device is a 0.27\% neodymium doped yttrium orthovanadate crystal that is double end pumped by two 30 Watt broadband diode arrays at 808 nm. For a 50 Watt TEM$_{00}$ single freqency seed laser, we have observed an amplified power output in excess of 60 Watts for single pass configuration. A further increase in output power can be attained by retroreflecting the beam back through the crystal a second time. Such a device has direct application in the construction of optical lattices where high power single frequency lasers are required.