Q-SWITCHED, TEM_(00)MODE, DIODE-PUMPED Yb~(3+):YAG LASER WITH EXTENDED TUNABILITY

摘要

The results of comprehensive investigations of the Yb:YAG laser pumped by a single InGaAs laser diode bar stack with the maximum output peak power of 420 W at 940 nm are presented. The maximum laser output pulse energy in a free running multimode operation at a pulse repetition rate of 10 Hz was 94 mJ/pulse at the pump pulse duration of 1 ms and pump pulse energy of 420 mJ. Tunability in a Q-switched regime was demonstrated in the wavelength range of 1023-1054 nm with the laser output bandwidth of 0.5 nm. This is the widest to the best of our knowledge tunability range obtained for the Q-switched, diode-pumped TEM_(00) mode Yb: YAG laser. The maximum Q-switched TEM_(00) laser output was 6.4 mJ/pulse at 1030 nm and 2.1 mJ/pulse at 1047 nm. The highest laser efficiency obtained in a free running operation was 29 % with respect to the absorbed pump power and 22.3% with respect to the incident pump power. An advanced model of the laser performance has been developed and found to be in a good agreement with the obtained experimental results.