Microlaser cavity and pulsed passively Q-switched solid state microlaser using an external trigger

摘要

The laser includes a solid laser-active medium (46) coated with a thin layer of optical saturable absorber (48) adjacent to the exit mirror (52) of the cavity. The laser is optically pumped by a beam (54) while saturation of the absorber is triggered by another beam (56) totally reflected from an engraved face (60) of the thin layer. The beam may be focused by a microlens (62) on the entry face in a region near the axis of the pumping beam. Preferably the distance (d) between the reflecting face and the region (A) of interaction between pumping beam and saturable absorber is as short as possible.