Patent ID: 8073024

Claim:
A wavelength conversion laser device, comprising: a solid-state laser element having a waveguide structure including a laser medium to amplify laser beams by providing a gain generated due to absorption of pump light to the laser beams and to output a linearly polarized fundamental wave; and a wavelength conversion element having a waveguide structure including a nonlinear, birefringent optical material in which an optic axis is arranged, the optic axis being inclined by a predetermined angle with respect to an optic axis of the laser medium in a plane vertical to an optical axis of the laser beams and selected such that a shape of a gain of the fundamental wave having passed through the birefringent optical material generates laser oscillation in a region where a gain band of the laser medium and a wavelength conversion band overlap each other, the wavelength conversion element being configured to convert a part of the fundamental wave output from the solid-state laser element to a second harmonic and to differentiate a polarization state of the fundamental wave having passed through the wavelength conversion element and having entered into the solid-state laser element from the linear polarization output from the solid-state laser element; and an optical resonator structure including the solid-state laser element and the wavelength conversion element, the optical resonator structure being configured to resonate the fundamental wave and to output a second harmonic from the wavelength conversion element.