Abstract

Passive Q-switching is currently the most attractive method of generation of ns and sub-ns laser pulses. The Q-switch main characteristics are as follows: concentration of absorption centers, ground state absorption (GSA) and excited state absorption (ESA) cross sections, lifetimes of the upper levels. To design the passively Q-switched laser properly we should know all these parameters as well as the potential gain in the lasing medium (LM) and its scatter losses. There are some works [1,2] where the problem of design and optimization of passively Q-switched laser with saturable absorbers (SA) exhibiting ESA was solved. However in these works the solutions were limited to the case of so called “slow absorber”.

© 2000 IEEE