Passively Q-switched laser with single longitudinal mode based on the frequency selection of grating and F-P etalon in twisted-mode folded cavity

A passively Q-switched side-pumped laser with folded resonator is specially constructed for singlelongitudinal-mode smooth pulse output.Nd:YAG is chosen as the laser active medium and Cr4+:YAG as the saturable absorber medium.Additionally,the method of frequency selection by grating with 1200 line/mm and Fabry-Perot(F-P)etalon is used in the twisted-mode cavity.The single-frequency smooth pulses are produced with 10-Hz repetition rate,20-ns pulse width,and 1.064-μm wavelength.The probability of single-frequency laser output measured is over 99% by using the methods of Fourier analysis and F-P etalon multiple-beam interferometry at the threshold voltage.The measured near-field and far-field angles of divergence axe 1.442 and 1.315 mrad,respectively.The values of M2 are 1.32 and 1.31 separately with the knife-edge method.Single pulse at 1.064 μm with the energy of 8.8 mJ is achieved in TEM00 mode.