Abstract

Nd:YAG laser of 500-W power, continuous wave or pulsed at 10-800 Hz repetition rates with duty cycle from 0.1 up to 0.8 was Q-switched by two different ways. In the first frustrated total internal reflection (FTIR); in the second tunable, small base Fabry-Perot (TFP) was used for switching. In both cases piezoceramies served for the displacement of the switching optical elements. Between 50 and 150 kHz, the measured amplitudephase characteristics have shown resonance at Q ≈ 5, which limit the applicability of these modulators above resonance. Special attention was paid to damp the mechanical resonances up to 200 kHz, using an electro-mechanical model calculation with strong electrical damping parameter. The damped and undamped characteristics are given.

© 1994 IEEE