Investigation of Cr/sup 4+/-ion doped passive Q-switches

Summary form only given. Passive Q-switching is currently the most attractive method of generation of ns and sub-ns laser pulses. The Q-switch main characteristics are as follows: concentration of absorption centers, ground state absorption (GSA) and excited state absorption (ESA) cross sections, lifetimes of the upper levels. To design the passively Q-switched laser properly we should know all these parameters as well as the potential gain in the lasing medium (LM) and its scatter losses. In this paper we developed the detailed analysis of the passively Q-switched lasers based on the normalized dimensionless rate equations taking into account: ESA and lifetimes of the SA as well as the magnification in the laser cavity.