Dynamics of passively Q-switched microchip lasers

Author

Peterson, P. ; Gavrielides, A. ; Sharma, M.P. ; Emeux, T.

Author_Institution

Nonlinear Opt. Center of Technol., Air Force Res. Lab., Kirland AFB, NM, USA

Volume

35

Issue

8

fYear

1999

fDate

8/1/1999 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1247

Lastpage

1256

Abstract

Self-pulsing in passively Q-switched microchip lasers is investigated in detail. The typical range of values of the parameters motivates a new analysis of the laser rate equations. We determine basic properties of the laser intensity oscillations such as threshold conditions, repetition rate, pulsewidth, peak power, and pulse energy. We show that these oscillations appear through a quasi-vertical Hopf bifurcation located slightly above the lasing threshold. Our bifurcation results are verified numerically by modeling a microchip laser experiment with Nd:YAG as the gain medium and YAG:Cr as saturable absorber. Our results agree with the experiment to within 10%

Keywords

Q-switching; bifurcation; laser theory; micro-optics; neodymium; optical saturable absorption; solid lasers; Nd:YAG gain medium; YAG:Cr; YAG:Cr saturable absorber; YAG:Nd; YAl5O12:Cr; YAl5O12:Nd; laser intensity oscillations; laser rate equations; lasing threshold; microchip laser; passively Q-switched microchip laser dynamics; peak power; pulse energy; pulsewidth; quasi-vertical Hopf bifurcation; repetition rate; self-pulsing; threshold conditions; Bifurcation; Equations; Laser modes; Laser stability; Laser theory; Microchip lasers; Optical pulses; Pump lasers; Solid lasers; Space vector pulse width modulation;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.777227

Filename

777227