High-peak-power electro-optically Q-switched laser with a gradient-doped Nd:YAG crystal

We report on a high-peak-power electro-optically Q -switched laser emitting a near-diffraction-limited beam profile at 1064 nm by using a gradient-doped Nd:YAG crystal. The gradient-doped crystal features a unique combination of a reduced thermal lens effect through effectively spreading the heat lo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optics letters 2021-10, Vol.46 (19), p.5016-5018
Main Authors: Wei, Meng-En, Cheng, Ting-Qing, Dou, Ren-Qin, Zhang, Qing-Li, Jiang, Hai-He
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Doped crystals
Lasers
Load distribution (forces)
Neodymium lasers
Pulse repetition rate
Q switched lasers
Thermal lensing
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Summary:We report on a high-peak-power electro-optically Q -switched laser emitting a near-diffraction-limited beam profile at 1064 nm by using a gradient-doped Nd:YAG crystal. The gradient-doped crystal features a unique combination of a reduced thermal lens effect through effectively spreading the heat load distribution within its volume. Its performance is compared with those of Nd:YAG crystals with uniform volume doping distribution operating in the Q -switched regime with the same laser configuration, demonstrating the higher average and peak power achievable with the gradient-doped crystal. The maximum average output power amounts to 6.9 W at a pulse repetition rate of 2 kHz, which corresponds to a maximum peak power of ∼ 585 k W . Compared to homogeneous dopant crystals, the slope efficiency and average output power increased by 30.8% and 21.1%, respectively.
ISSN:0146-9592
1539-4794
DOI:10.1364/OL.442131