Liang, DaweiAlmeida, Joana2021-01-072021-01-072013-10-21PURE: 27379484PURE UUID: 547145a8-f87a-425c-a380-13a8bc2b6228Scopus: 84886377442PubMed: 24150353WOS: 000326085600067ORCID: /0000-0001-5890-7623/work/86409306http://hdl.handle.net/10362/109913These research projects were funded by the Science and Technology Foundation of Portuguese Ministry of Science (PTDC/FIS/103599/2008 and PTDC/FIS/122420/2010), Technology and Higher Education (FCT-MCTES).Here we show a significant advance in solar-pumped laser beam brightness by utilizing a 1.0 m diameter Fresnel lens and a 3 mm diameter Nd:YAG single-crystal rod. The incoming solar radiation is firstly focused by the Fresnel lens on a solar tracker. A large aspheric lens and a 2D-CPC concentrator are then combined to further compress the concentrated solar radiation along the thin laser rod within a V-shaped pumping cavity. 2.3 W cw TEM00 (M2 ? 1.1) solar laser power is finally produced, attaining 1.9 W laser beam brightness figure of merit, which is 6.6 times higher than the previous record. For multimode operation, 8.1 W cw laser power is produced, corresponding to 143% enhancement in collection efficiency.6351122engAtomic and Molecular Physics, and Opticsjournal article10.1364/OE.21.025107https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84886377442