Title :
Pump-induced bleaching of the saturable absorber in short-pulse Nd:YAG/Cr4+:YAG passively Q-switched microchip lasers
Author :
Zayhowski, John J. ; Wilson, Alexander L., Jr.
Author_Institution :
MIT Lincoln Lab., Lexington, MA, USA
Abstract :
Bleaching of the saturable absorber by pump light increases the length of the pulse generated in a passively Q-switched Nd:YAG/Cr4+:YAG microchip laser and decreases the pulse energy. This effect is greatest when transmitted pump light is nearly focused in the Cr4+:YAG and when pumping is sufficiently intense to bleach the absorption of the Nd:YAG. Both effects are important in short-pulse microchip lasers. The maximum repetition rate of a passively Q-switched Nd:YAG/Cr4+:YAG microchip laser is correlated with the pulsewidth. In general, it decreases as the pulsewidth gets shorter.
Keywords :
Q-switching; microchip lasers; neodymium; optical pumping; optical saturable absorption; YAG:Cr4+; YAG:Nd; YAl5O12:Cr; YAl5O12:Nd; passively Q-switched microchip laser; pump-induced bleaching; saturable absorber; short-pulse Nd:YAG/Cr4+:YAG passively Q-switched microchip lasers; short-pulse microchip lasers; transmitted pump light; Absorption; Bleaching; Chromium; Laser excitation; Microchip lasers; Optical pulse generation; Optical pulses; Pump lasers; Solid lasers; Space vector pulse width modulation;
Journal_Title :
Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of
DOI :
10.1109/JQE.2003.819535
