Abstract
We carried out an experimental study of an Er:YAG laser that is passively -switched by Cr:ZnSe saturable absorbers and pumped at 1470 nm by a 14 W laser diode. The 1617 nm emission is selected by an appropriate combination of transmissions of the saturable absorber and of the output coupler. With an accurate comparison between actively -switched and passively -switched operations and with Cr:ZnSe transmission measurements, we demonstrated by experiments and by simulations that the output energy is strongly dependent on the Cr:ZnSe temperature. With a better cooling of the Cr:ZnSe crystal heated by residual pump and signal absorption, the energy per pulse can be doubled, from 110 to 220 μJ, at a repetition rate of 800 Hz.
© 2014 Optical Society of America
Full Article | PDF ArticleMore Like This
Ran Wang, Qing Ye, and Chunqing Gao
Appl. Opt. 53(10) 2093-2096 (2014)
J. W. Kim, D. Y. Shen, J. K. Sahu, and W. A. Clarkson
Opt. Express 16(8) 5807-5812 (2008)
Zhenzhen Yu, Mingjian Wang, Xia Hou, and Weibiao Chen
Appl. Opt. 53(34) 8032-8035 (2014)