Electro-optically Q-switched Nd:YVO4 slab laser with a high repetition rate and a short pulse width

We report on a compact and highly efficient diode-end-pumped TEM00 Nd:YVO4 slab laser with an output power of 103 W and beam quality M2 < or = 1.5. The optical-to-optical efficiency was 41.5%. In electro-optically Q-switched operation, 83 W of average power at a pulse-repetition rate of 50 kHz with a pulse length of 11.3 ns was obtained. At a pulse-repetition rate of 10 kHz, 5.6 mJ of pulse energy, and 870 kW of peak power were measured.