Abstract: | The static laser performance of a-growth Nd:GdVO4 crystal (a-cut, 4 × 4 × 25 (mm)) at 1.34μm pumped by flash-lamp is investigated with different transmissions of output couplers. With the output coupler transmission of T = 30%, the static output energy of 148 mJ is obtained when the pump energy is 35.2 J,and the corresponding electric-optical conversion efficiency is 0.42%. The Q-switched output of lasers with the output wavelength ranging from 1.3 to 1.6 μm can be realized by using Co2+ :LaMgAl11O19 (Co:LMA)as saturable absorber. A flash-lamp-pumped, passively Q-switched Nd:GdVO4 laser with Co:LMA as saturable absorber is demonstrated in plano-concave laser cavity. With the cavity length of 16.3 cm and pump energy of 19.8 J, the single-pulse output energy, pulse width, and peak power are obtained to be 4m J, 80 ns, and 5 × 104 W, respectively. |