High average power diode-pumped composite Nd:YAG laser passively Q-switched by Cr/sup 4+/:YAG saturable absorber

Author

Pavel, N. ; Kurlmura, S. ; Shoji, I. ; Salkawa, J. ; Taira, T.

Author_Institution

Laser Res. Center, Inst. for Molecular Sci., Okazaki, Japan

fYear

2000

fDate

10-15 Sept. 2000

Abstract

Summary form only. Passive Q-switching operation is desirable for applications. Up to now 2.7-W average power was obtained from a diode end-pumped Nd:YAG laser that employs Cr/sup 4+/:YAG saturable absorber. It was demonstrated that in a composite rod both the peak temperature rise and the thermal stress induced by optical pumping are reduced compared to a noncomposite crystal. In this work we show that these improvements which reduces the thermal lensing effect, make a composite medium a good solution for improving output performances of high average power passively Q-switched lasers.

Keywords

Q-switching; composite materials; neodymium; optical materials; optical pumping; optical saturable absorption; solid lasers; 2.7 W; Cr/sup 4+/:YAG saturable absorber; YAG:Cr; YAG:Nd; YAl5O12:Cr; YAl5O12:Nd; composite Nd:YAG laser; composite rod; diode end-pumped Nd:YAG laser; diode-pumped; high average power; optical pumping; passively Q-switched; passively Q-switched lasers; peak temperature rise; thermal lensing effect; thermal stress; Chromium; Diodes; Fiber lasers; Laser beams; Laser excitation; Laser theory; Phase change materials; Power lasers; Pump lasers; Solid state circuits;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe, 2000. Conference Digest. 2000 Conference on

Conference_Location

Nice

Print_ISBN

0-7803-6319-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CLEOE.2000.909997

Filename

909997