High power solid state single-frequency pulsed laser for Doppler velocimeters

A high power solid state single-frequency pulsed oscillator/amplifier laser system developed for Doppler velocimeters is described. The oscillator is based on a continuous wave diode pumped Nd:YAG single frequency laser, oper ating at a wavelength of 1064 nm. The output of the laser is chopped into p ulses of 100 ns to 10 mu s duration and 10 Hz repetition rate by a Pockels cell and polarizers. The pulses are amplified by a double pass flash-pumped Nd:YAG amplifier to kW power levels. The amplified laser pulses are freque ncy doubled with high efficiency to 532 nm in a periodically poled KTiOPO4 crystal. This ladder system is useful for many velocimeter applications and its utilization in an optically recording velocity interferometer system i s described. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748(00)02208-5 ].