56-ps passively Q-switched diode-pumped microchip laser

We passively Q switched a diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 microchip crystal with an antiresonant Fabry-Perot saturable absorber and achieved single-frequency pulses as short as 56 ps. We can vary the pulse width from 56 ps to 30 ns and the repetition rate from 27 kHz up to 7 MHz by changing the design parameters of the saturable absorber and the pump power.     

Model of CW pumped passively Q-switched laser

An analytical model of a CW pumped passively Q-switched laser in plane wave approximation is presented. The model was based on possibility to express the analytical solution of simplified rate equations with the help of LambertW function. The LambertW function is now commonly available in most of mathematical software and became to be easy to use. The significant simplification of saturable absorber dynamics is made and its presence is described only by its initial and saturated transmission. Using this model it is possible to estimate giant pulse parameters, like pulse length and energy density, the pulse repetition rate, and the laser input-output power characteristic. The validity limits of this model were verified using numerical solution of more complicated rate equations model which included nonlinear response of the modulator. The model was compared with experimental results obtained for passively Q-switched diode pumped Nd:YAG/V:YAG microchip laser.     

The pulse shape of a passively Q-switched microchip laser

The shape of the intensity pulse of a passively Q-switched microchip laser is investigated numerically and analytically. Our analysis is motivated by independent microchip laser experiments exhibiting nearly symmetric pulses in the case of a semiconductor saturable absorber and asymmetric pulses in the case of a solid state saturable absorber. Asymptotic methods are used to determine limiting behaviors of the pulse shape for both symmetric and asymmetric pulses. In the first case, we determine a sech² solution parametrized by one parameter which can be determined by solving two coupled nonlinear algebraic equations. In the second case, the pulse solution is decomposed into two distinct approximations exhibiting different amplitude and time scales properties. We review earlier approximations of the repetition rate and the pulse width. Received 2 August 1999     

Simultaneous intracavity optical parametric oscillation and stimulated Raman scattering pumped by a doubly passively Q-switched Nd:GGG laser

By using a doubly passively Q-switched Nd:Gd₃Ga₅O₁₂(Nd:GGG) laser with Cr⁴⁺:YAG and GaAs as saturable absorbers as pump laser, simultaneous intracavity optical parametric oscillation and stimulated Raman scattering based on a single X-cut KTiOPO₄ (KTP) crystal have been realized. Under an incident diode pump power of 10.5 W, the output powers at the signal wave near 1,569 nm and the first Stokes emission near 1,094 nm were 218 and 72 mW, corresponding to the optical-to-optical conversion efficiencies of 2.08 and 0.69 %, respectively. The measured shortest pulse duration at the signal wave near 1,569 nm was 580 ps, generating a pulse peak power of 43.7 kW, while the minimum pulse duration at the first Stokes emission near 1,094 nm was 1.61 ns. By adjusting the tilt angle of the KTP crystal, up to the third Stokes scattering was also obtained.     

A passively Q-switched diode pumped Yb:YAG microchip laser

A passively Q-switched diode pumped Yb:YAG microchip laser with Cr4+:YAG saturable absorber mirror is reported. The TEMoo laser pulses are obtained with 1,7-uJ pulse energy, 15-ns pulse width, 0.11-kW peak power, and a repetition rate of 2.2 kHz at 1049 nm. The doped concentration and dimension of Yb:YAG microchip crystal are 10 at.-% and 5×0.6 mm2, respectively.     

Intracavity optical parametric oscillator pumped by passively Q-switched Nd:YLF laser

We report on a passively Q-switched end pumped Nd:YLF laser including a noncritically phase-matched KTP singly resonant intracavity optical parametric oscillator (IOPO-KTP). For the Q-switching operation we have used Cr:YAG saturable absorber. The optimized passively Q-switched Nd:YLF laser without IOPO generated linearly polarized pulses of 11.5 ns and 1.07 mJ at 1047 nm. The conversion efficiency of the optimized Q-switched pulse energy at 1047 nm to 1547 nm of a signal approached about 47%. For optimizing both Nd:YLF laser and IOPO we have numerically solved a theoretical model. We have achieved 1.6-ns duration pulses at 1547 nm with energy of 0.5 mJ and peak power of above 300 kW. The beam quality was excellent (M² ≈1).     

Watt-level continuous-wave and passively Q-switched red lasers pumped by a single blue laser diode

Praseodymium-ion-doped gain materials have the superiority of lasing at various visible wavelengths directly.Simple and compact visible lasers are booming with the development of blue laser diodes in recent years. In this Letter, we demonstrate the watt-level red laser with a single blue laser diode and Pr:YLiF_4 crystal. On this basis,the passively Q-switched pulse lasers are obtained with monolayer graphene and Co:ZnO thin film as the Q-switchers in the visible range.     

High-pulse-energy passively Q-switched quasi-monolithic microchip lasers operating in the sub-100-ps pulse regime

We present passively Q-switched microchip lasers with items bonded by spin-on-glass glue. Passive Q-switching is obtained by a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror. The laser medium is a Nd:YVO(4) crystal. These lasers generate pulse peak powers up to 20 kW at a pulse duration as short as 50 ps and pulse repetition rates of 166 kHz. At 1064 nm, a linear polarized transversal and longitudinal single-mode beam is emitted. To the best of our knowledge, these are the shortest pulses in the 1 microJ energy range ever obtained with passively Q-switched microchip lasers. The quasi-monolithic setup ensures stable and reliable performance.     

Efficient sub-nanosecond intracavity optical parametric oscillator pumped with a passively Q-switched Nd:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser

An efficient diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:GdVO₄/Cr⁴⁺:YAG laser was employed to generate a high-repetition-rate, high-peak-power eye-safe laser beam with an intracavity optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on a KTP crystal. The conversion efficiency for the average power is 8.3% from pump diode input to OPO signal output and the slope efficiency is up to 10%. At an incident pump power of 14.5 W, the compact intracavity OPO cavity, operating at 46 kHz, produces average powers at 1571 nm up to 1.2 W with a pulse width as short as 700 ps. PACS 42.60.Gd; 42.65.Yj; 42.55.X     

Nanosecond periodically poled lithium niobate optical parametric generator pumped at 532 nm by a single-frequency passively Q-switched Nd:YAG laser

We report an efficient, visible, nanosecond optical parametric generator of periodically poled lithium niobate pumped at 532 nm by a frequency-doubled, diode-pumped, passively Q -switched, single-mode Nd:YAG laser with 90-muJ pulse energy. The signal radiation is tunable from 637 to 593 nm. The maximum signal-conversion efficiency is 23%. Optical parametric amplification of a He-Ne laser at 632.8 nm is also studied.     

High-repetition-rate 300-ps pulsed ultraviolet source with a passively Q-switched microchip laser and a multipass amplifier

We demonstrate a new kind of picosecond laser source in the UV at a high repetition rate of -45 kHz , using only passive, compact, and simple elements. This system is based on a microchip laser and a very efficient multipass amplifier, both pumped with recently developed high-brightness laser diodes. The system has been optimized to deliver, at a high repetition rate, subnanosecond pulses at the wavelength 355 nm with an energy per pulse of close to 1 muJ (38-mW average power). This source is to our knowledge the first totally passive 300-ps UV laser source at this high repetition rate.     

Stable nanosecond pulse generation from a graphene-based passively Q-switched Yb-doped fiber laser

We demonstrate stable 70?ns pulse generation from a Yb-doped fiber laser passively Q-switched by a graphene-based saturable absorber mirror in a short linear cavity. The maximum output power was 12?mW and the highest single pulse energy was 46?nJ. The repetition rate of the fiber laser can be widely tuned from 140 to 257?kHz along with the increase of the pump power. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report for passively Q-switched sub-100-ns pulse operation of a graphene-based saturable absorber in a Yb-doped fiber laser.     

Sub-5-ps, multimegawatt peak-power pulses from a fiber-amplified and optically compressed passively Q-switched microchip laser

We report on high-energy picosecond pulse generation from a passively Q-switched and fiber-amplified microchip laser system. Initially, the utilized microchip lasers produce pulses with durations of around 100 ps at 1064 nm central wavelength. These pulses are amplified to energies exceeding 100 μJ, simultaneously chirped and spectrally broadened by self-phase modulation using a double stage amplifier based on single-mode LMA photonic crystal fibers at repetition rates of up to 1 MHz. Subsequently, the pulse duration of chirped pulses is reduced by means of nonlinear pulse compression to durations of 2.7 ps employing a conventional grating compressor and 4.7 ps using a compact compressor based on a chirped volume Bragg grating.     

Pulse energy optimization of passively Q-switched flash-lamp pumped Er:glass laser

An approach to the energy optimization of the passively Q-switchedEr:glass laser is considered. The optimization procedure is represented in the maximally verifiable and usable graphical form, which is applied to the flash-lamp pumped Er:glass laser passively Q-switchedwith the Co²⁺-doped MgAl₂O₄ and LaMgAl₁₁O₁₉ saturable absorbers. Received: 6 December 2001 / Revised version: 5 March 2002 / Published online: 8 August 2002     

Control of the pulse duration in a diode-pumped passively Q-switched intracavity frequency-doubling laser

Different techniques to control the pulse duration of a diode-pumped passively Q-switched intracavity frequency-doubled laser are studied, which shows that varying the pump beam radius in the gain medium and mode-spot sizes on a saturable absorber are two efficient ways to control the pulse duration. The output pulse durations obtained from a diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:GdVO₄/KTP laser with a GaAs wafer can be controlled in a wide range over 100 ns, which indicates a simple way of controlling the pulse duration of the intracavity frequency-doubled passively Q-switched laser.     

Nd:LuYAG混晶1123 nm被动调Q激光器

文章报道了一个二极管激光抽运的1123 nm被动调Q激光器. 激光晶体为混晶Nd:LuYAG, 饱和吸收体选为Cr⁴⁺:YAG晶体. 在连续运转情况下, 最高输出功率为2.77 W, 对应的光-光转换效率为29.53%. 调Q运转时, 在9.38 W吸收抽运功率下, 最高输出功率为0.94 W. 脉冲宽度整体在105 ns左右. 在最高吸收抽运功率下, 1123 nm激光的输出重复频率为9.40 kHz, 对应的单脉冲能量可达100 μJ, 高于目前报道的单晶Nd:YAG 1123 nm单脉冲能量, 证明其在能量存储方面较单晶Nd:YAG更具优势. 另外, 据我们所知, 这是关于混晶Nd:LuYAG 1123 nm输出的首次报道.     

Control of the pulse width of a laser-diode end-pumped passively Q-switched solid-state laser

We theoretically and experimentally study different techniques to control the pulse width of a laser-diode-pumped passively Q-switched solid-state laser. It is shown that varying the laser beam radius in the saturable absorber and the pump beam radius in the gain medium provide an efficient means to control the pulse width. The experiments performed on a laser-diode-pumped Nd:YVO₄ laser passively Q-switched by a Cr⁴⁺:YAG saturable absorber are consistent with the theoretical calculations obtained from the rate-equations model, in which the intracavity photon density is assumed to be Gaussian spatial distribution, and the longitudinal variation of the intracavity photon density and the pump beam spatial distribution are also considered.     

Diode pumped CW and passively Q-switched Nd:LGGG laser at 1062 nm

We report a Nd:LGGG laser at 1062 nm in the operations of the continuous-wave (CW) and passively Q-switching. The maximum CW output power of 5.62 W was obtained, corresponding to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 49.0% and slope efficiency of 55.9%. By using Cr⁴⁺:YAG with initial transmission of 94% as the saturable absorber, for the first time, we got the maximum passively Q-switched output power of 1.21 W, accompanied with a highest pulse repetition rate of 27.1 kHz and a shortest pulse width of 9.1 ns.     

重复频率亚纳秒脉冲硬X射线发生器

 研制了一种重复频率快脉冲硬X射线发生器,该发生器的主要设备包括纳秒脉冲功率源、亚纳秒脉冲发生器、功率负载二极管装置、真空系统和二极管运行监测探测器5部分。对该发生器的工作原理、结构特点进行了介绍,通过建立的发生器运行电参数监测以及辐射场参数测量手段,对源的运行电流、电压参数以及辐射场参数进行了初步监测和分析,并考验了源运行的稳定性。结果表明：该发生器结构以及运行方式灵活、稳定性好,实现了射线的能量上限、能谱、强度、脉宽等多种重要参数在线可调,且射线有一定的强度,可以为快响应探头标定等实验提供合适的纳秒、皮秒脉冲硬X射线辐射场。