[20p-S224-1~19] 3.5 Laser system and materials

▼ [20p-S224-1] Passively Q-switched Nd:YVO₄ Microchip Laser for Giant Pulse Generation

〇Arvydas Kausas¹, Takunori Taira¹ (1.Inst. for Molecular Science)

Keywords:Lasers, neodymium,Q-switched,Thermo-optical materials

We present a giant-pulse generation laser realized by the emission cross-section control of a gain medium in a passively Q-switched Nd:YVO₄ microchip laser with a Cr⁴⁺:YAG saturable absorber. Up to 1.17 MW peak power and 1.03 mJ pulse energy were obtained with a 100 Hz repetition rate. By combining the Nd:YVO₄ crystal with a Sapphire plate, temperature homogenization in the gain crystal was obtained. In addition, the balance between the thermal lensing effect and the temperature control of the gain medium allowed the achievement of the high peak power for this laser system.