PASSIVE Q-SWITCHING OF A NEODYMIUM LASER BY A CR4-YAG CRYSTAL SWITCH()

Theoretical and experimental investigations were made of passive Q swi tching of a neodymium;il laser by Cr4+:YAG switch. Analytic expression s were derived for estimating the output energy of the TEM00 mode of a passively Q-switched laser from the known parameters of the Cr4+:YAG switch, of the active element, and of the cavity, The adopted descript ion makes it possible to cover the range form generation of the first spike of a free-running transient to generation of a giant pulse. An e xperimental study was made of the dependence of the output energy on t he cavity parameters, on the material of the active element (in this i nvestigation it was Nd:YAG and Cr, Nd: GSGG), and on the angle of rota tion of the Cr4+:YAG switch, The experimental results obtained agreed to within 30% with calculations.