| Abstract: | A diode-end-pumped electro-optic (EO) Q-switched Nd:YVO4 laser operating at repetition rate of 10 kpps (pulses per second) was reported. A block of La3Ga5SiO14 (LGS) single crystal was used as a Q-switch and the driver was a metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOS-FET) pulser of high repetition rate and high voltage. At continuous wave (CW) operation, the slope efficiency of the laser was 46%, and maximum optical-to-optical efficiency was 38.5%. Using an output coupler with transmission of 70%, a 10-kpps Q-switched pulse train with 0.4-mJ monopulse energy and 8.2-ns pulse width was achieved, the optical conversion efficiency was around 15%, and the beam quality M2 factor was less than 1.2. |
