• DocumentCode
    841127
  • Title

    Pump-induced bleaching of the saturable absorber in short-pulse Nd:YAG/Cr4+:YAG passively Q-switched microchip lasers

  • Author

    Zayhowski, John J. ; Wilson, Alexander L., Jr.

  • Author_Institution
    MIT Lincoln Lab., Lexington, MA, USA
  • Volume
    39
  • Issue
    12
  • fYear
    2003
  • Firstpage
    1588
  • Lastpage
    1593
  • Abstract
    Bleaching of the saturable absorber by pump light increases the length of the pulse generated in a passively Q-switched Nd:YAG/Cr4+:YAG microchip laser and decreases the pulse energy. This effect is greatest when transmitted pump light is nearly focused in the Cr4+:YAG and when pumping is sufficiently intense to bleach the absorption of the Nd:YAG. Both effects are important in short-pulse microchip lasers. The maximum repetition rate of a passively Q-switched Nd:YAG/Cr4+:YAG microchip laser is correlated with the pulsewidth. In general, it decreases as the pulsewidth gets shorter.
  • Keywords
    Q-switching; microchip lasers; neodymium; optical pumping; optical saturable absorption; YAG:Cr4+; YAG:Nd; YAl5O12:Cr; YAl5O12:Nd; passively Q-switched microchip laser; pump-induced bleaching; saturable absorber; short-pulse Nd:YAG/Cr4+:YAG passively Q-switched microchip lasers; short-pulse microchip lasers; transmitted pump light; Absorption; Bleaching; Chromium; Laser excitation; Microchip lasers; Optical pulse generation; 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/JQE.2003.819535
  • Filename
    1253231