SOLID-STATE LASER PASSIVELY Q-SWITCHED IN A NEW GEOMETRY

A new passive Q-switching geometry of a laser cavity has been proposed . In the proposed scheme, the volume of the passive Q-switch just part ially overlaps the intracavity laser beam cross-section, leading, howe ver, to the entire beam modulation, This technique was applied for pas sive Q-switching of a flash-lamp pumped multimode YAG:Nd3+ laser by Li F:F-2(-) crystals. The giant pulse laser action threshold has been det ected in the proposed geometry, and is lower than that in the scheme w here the passive Q-switch operates in the traditional manner, Stable g iant pulse oscillation of 1064 nm wavelength with a pulse duration of 24 ns, pulse energy of 450 mJ, and pulse repetition rates of up to 100 Hz, have been obtained, (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.