Abstract

Pulsed solid-state lasers using active or passive Q-switching are limited in pulse versatility since pulse rate and pulse duration are interlinked, and the achievable maximum pulse rate and the shortness of the pulse duration are both limited by the cavity dynamics. An interesting alternative is to use a pulsed diode laser seeding an amplifier where the diode pulse rate and pulse duration can be independently and flexibly controlled by external electrical drive. However, the amplifier must have extremely high amplification to provide useful pulse energy for applications (e.g. material processing). This approach is extensively used in high gain fibre laser systems, but is limited by the onset of peak power optical damage and difficulties due to high amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) in fibre amplifiers. In this work, we present a study of the flexibility of using the bulk bounce Nd:YVO₄ amplifier geometry [1,2] as an ultrahigh gain (50dB) alternative to a fibre amplifier for creation of versatile high peak power pulses.

© 2013 IEEE