We demonstrate a high-power passively Q -switched and mode-locked Nd:YVO(4) laser with a Cr(4+):YAG saturable absorber. 2.7 W of average power with an 18-kHz Q -switched repetition rate was generated at a 12.5-W pump power. The peak power of a single pulse near the maximum of the Q -switched envelope was greater than 100 kW.

Since 1983, the current network of NASA Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) stations used an Nd:YAG oscillator cavity in an active-passive configuration to generate 150-200 psec (2mj) 1064nm pulses for satellite ranging. This cavity (active-passive) used a liquid (chlorobenzene) dye cell as the passive saturable absorber. The dye consisted of Exciton (Kodak-9740) Q-Switch I dye and monochlorobenzene ...

A Cr4+-doped TiTe3O8 crystal with dimensions up to 21 mm× mm × 11 was grown successfully by the top-seeded solution growth method. high-resolution X-ray diffraction experiment showed that full width at half-maximum of rocking curve 41.90″. Energy-dispersive spectrometry (EDS) and fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) proved Cr4+ ions have been doped into molar percentage 4.9%. The Cr:TiTe3O8 exhibite...

Ceramic YAG/Yb:YAG/YAG planar waveguide lasers were realized on continuous-wave and mode-locked operations. The straight waveguide, fabricated by non-aqueous tape casting and solid state reactive sintering, enabled highly efficient diode-pumped waveguide continuous-wave laser with the slope efficiency of 66% and average output power of more than 3 W. The influence of the waveguide structure on ...

Passive Q switching of solid-state lasers is usually accomplished with organic dyes or color centers as the saturable absorber. Dyes, however, have poor thermal stability and tend to degrade rapidly. To operate in cw-pumped lasers, dyes require a circulation system. Color centers, such as the color-center LiF crystal, -3 exhibit a fading phenomenon that may limit the period of reliable operatio...

We demonstrate self-starting passive mode locking of a Cr (4+):YAG laser, using an intracavity nonlinear mirror as a saturable absorber. The pump source is a diode-pumped Nd:YVO(4) laser. Output pulses are centered at 1541 nm, with 26-nm spectral bandwidth and 110-fs pulse width. Output powers of 70 mW are obtained with 8 W of pump power. This mode locking technique is compared with Kerr-lens m...

An intracavity KTiOPO(4) (KTP) optical parametric oscillator (OPO) pumped by a simultaneously Q-switched and mode-locked (QML) Nd:Gd(3)Ga(5)O(12) (Nd:GGG) laser with an acousto-optic modulator (AOM) and a Cr(4+):YAG saturable absorber is presented. A minimum mode-locking pulse duration underneath the Q-switched envelope was evaluated to be about 290 ps. A maximum QML output power of 82 mW at th...

We report an efficient high-peak-power and high-average-power passively Q-switched ytterbium fiber laser with a Cr(4+):YAG crystal as a saturable absorber in an external-resonator configuration. At an incident pump power of 17.5 W, the passively Q-switched fiber laser produces an average power greater than 6.2 W with a pulse repetition rate of 48 kHz. The output pulses noticeably display a mode...