A low-cost approach to diode-pumped Ti:Sapphire resonators with Watt-level output

We report a continuous-wave Ti:sapphire laser with an output power of 1.03 W, achieved with two low-cost single-emitter diode pumps, both of blue wavelength (448 and 468 nm). We reach Watt-level output power using a novel strategy of combining blue-wavelength pumping with a long, low-doping Ti:sapphire crystal, maximising the available pump power while minimising deleterious effects associated with blue pump wavelengths