Abstract

Passive Q-switching operation is desirable for applications such as marking, micromachining, ranging, or microsurgery. Up to now 2.7-W average power was obtained from a diode end-pumped Nd.YAG laser that employs Cr⁴⁺:YAG saturable absorber and 4.38-W resulted using a Nd:YVO₄ medium (1). It was demonstrated that in a composite rod both the peak temperature rise and the thermal stress induced by optical pumping are reduced compared to a noncomposite crystal [2]. In this work we show that these improvements, which reduces the thermal lensing effect, made a composite medium a good solution for improving output performances of high average power passively Q-switched lasers

© 2000 IEEE