Title :
Mode-locked Nd:YAG laser using Cr/sup 4+/:YAG crystal at 1.064 /spl mu/m
Author :
Lihuang Lin ; Bin Ouyang ; Yuxin Leng ; Xiaoke Wan
Author_Institution :
Inst. of Opt. & Fine Mech., Acad. Sinica, Shanghai, China
Abstract :
Summary form only given. Cr/sup 4+/:YAG has been used for saturable absorption Q-switching to achieve a giant pulse in the Nd:YAG laser. For the long lifetime of the excited-state (3.2 /spl mu/s), it is difficult to create the mode-locking effect as a general saturable absorber. However recently, with the discovery of the excited-state-absorption (ESA) of Cr/sup 4+/:YAG, it becomes possible to mode-lock the Nd:YAG laser at 1.064 /spl mu/m by the short lifetime of the upper-excited-state (50 ps). In the paper, we have achieved the complete and stable pulse train in an active-passive mode-locked Nd:YAG laser using Cr4+:YAG as a saturable absorber. The widths (FWHM) of the pulse envelopment and every single pulse were 120 ns and 2 ns (shorter than the early report) respectively.
Keywords :
Q-switching; chromium; excited states; laser beams; laser cavity resonators; laser mode locking; neodymium; optical materials; optical pulse generation; optical saturable absorption; solid lasers; 1.064 mum; 120 ns; 2 ns; 3.2 mus; 50 ps; Cr/sup 4+/:YAG crystal; Nd:YAG laser; YAG:Cr; YAG:Nd; YAl5O12:Cr; YAl5O12:Nd; active-passive mode-locked laser; excited-state; excited-state-absorption; giant pulse; lifetime; mode-locked laser; mode-locking effect; pulse envelopment; pulse train; saturable absorber; saturable absorption Q-switching; Chromium; Laser excitation; Laser mode locking; Laser stability; Laser theory; Neodymium; Optical modulation; Optical pulses; Pulse modulation; Space vector pulse width modulation;
Conference_Titel :
Lasers and Electro-Optics, 1999. CLEO '99. Summaries of Papers Presented at the Conference on
Conference_Location :
Baltimore, MD, USA
Print_ISBN :
1-55752-595-1
DOI :
10.1109/CLEO.1999.833987
